


Kahnal Arc

by wrunic



Series: Guardians of Sakaeli [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen, High Fantasy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-10
Updated: 2019-05-08
Packaged: 2019-11-15 02:06:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 56,256
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18064511
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wrunic/pseuds/wrunic
Summary: "Fixing the problems once they’ve happened isn’t enough. I want to keep this from happening to anyone else’s village, anyone else’s home. I’d like to come with you and Bahral, if you’ll have me.”Ora let out a shaky breath, not meeting Ilei’s gaze, afraid of what she’d find if she did. The idea of Ilei saying no hadn’t occurred to her until she’d said everything out loud, and it had taken her so long to convince herself to ask at all that the idea of rejection was terrifying.“Of course you can come.” Ilei said warmly, tilting Ora’s chin up and smiling at her. “I asked you to, didn’t I?”





	1. The Knight

**Author's Note:**

> So! In the unlikely event that someone reads this:
> 
> Welcome! Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you enjoy this.
> 
> I'm mostly posting this here so I don't have to keep adding people to my docs. Admittedly, this isn't the ideal place to post it, since no one reads original stuff on Ao3, but the only platform I know of for posting original works is Wattpad and I don't hate myself so we're not doing that.
> 
> In the unlikely event that someone _does_ read this and knows of a non-Wattpad platform for posting orginal writing, please let me know.

Ora was used to calm. There were occasional interruptions from people of the local villages coming to get her help, but those were fairly rare. For the most part, she was alone. And she was okay with that. It was the life she'd chosen for herself, after all.

The morning was a nice one, clear and bright. She woke up when the sunlight started spilling in through her window, as was her habit, got up, and made herself some tea. 

While she drank, (and ate some of the bread one of her patients had given her as payment) she ran through what she needed to get done today. 

Netta was coming by later that week, but she had everything she needed for that appointment already. She briefly pondered the state of her available herbs, and decided a quick trip out to restock wouldn't be remiss.

She took her time finishing breakfast, got dressed, grabbed a basket, and headed out. 

It really was a beautiful day.

The sunlight filtered down through the trees, dappling the grass with gold. Birds and bugs were flitting about, filling the canopy with life. 

The calm was interrupted by a loud caw and the flapping of wings. An enormous raven flew down to a low branch and fixed its beady eyes on Ora.

“Good morning Kiri.”

The bird crowed again. 

Ora reached into her basket and pulled out a mix of nuts and dried berries, which she extended toward Kiri. He flew over and got to work, eating the whole portion out of her palm before settling down contentedly on her shoulder. 

She flicked him, and he squawked indignantly at her. 

“None of that. I paid you, now go find me some resswart.”

Kiri nipped affectionately at her ear before flying off.

She wasn't worried. He always came back. 

Ora wasn't quite sure whether he was some kind of spirit, the familiar of a long-dead witch, or just a normal, if very intelligent, raven. Whatever he was, he was useful, as long as she provided him with snacks and shiny things.

With that out of the way, she set off on her own mission: Agreth.

It was notoriously difficult to find, and even worse to pick, but it was an excellent revitalizer, and she'd found a patch fairly close to her house a few months ago.

“Hevi.” She said quietly. One of the runes on her arm glowed, and a previously invisible path through the undergrowth appeared. Ora followed it to her clearing, hoping she'd given it enough time to regrow since last time. She arrived at the clearing and immediately spotted a copse of tiny pink flowers nearby. 

Ora smiled to herself and walked toward them, slowly and cautiously. She put her basket down and sat beside it, close enough that she _could_ pick them, but not touching any just yet. 

“Hello?”

A small head popped out of the grass and eyed her suspiciously. It looked somewhat like green hedgehog. 

“Remember me?” Ora asked softly, reaching into the basket and pulling out a vial of water. She poured some into her palm, and held it out toward its nose. “I came here a few months ago. I'd like some flowers, if you'd be so kind.”

The creature sniffed at her hand, then lapped up the water and turned around so its back (and all of the flowers) were facing Ora.

She plucked a few and put them in the basket. 

“Thank you.” She got slowly to her feet (no sense spooking it) and walked back to her path. 

The rest of her day progressed pretty much the same way, traipsing around her little patch of forest and either picking plants or bargaining with their various magical guardians until they gave her some. Kiri came back eventually, with her resswart, and she took a quick break for lunch, which she shared with him.

She picked back up after that, with Kiri accompanying her, and things went normally, right up until she tried to get some erusleaf. _Getting_ the erusleaf wasn't actually much of a problem, she'd saved it for last because it was easiest, but that didn't mean collecting it was uneventful. 

She'd just finished getting the leaves into her (frankly overstuffed) basket, when she heard the unmistakable noises of something fairly large and clumsy moving in the foliage.

“Get this back to the house, please.” She said, passing the basket to Kiri. He flew off silently, probably sensing the tension in her voice. With that sorted, Ora took a few steps toward where the noise had come from and called out a cautious “Who's there?”

She got no answer. Ora was relieved for a few seconds, and figured she'd probably just been overreacting, when the noise picked up again, and a woman about her own age fell out of a tree and onto the grass below.

“Are you alright?” Ora asked, running to the woman's side and crouching beside her. Her only answer was a pained groan. Ora rolled the woman onto her back, and had to suppress a gasp. She was in far worse shape than such a small fall would cause. There was a deep gash on her forehead, and Ora could see at least three stab wounds, two to her torso and one to her leg, not to mention the tiny cuts and bruises that seemed to cover her entire body. She was also very unconscious. 

Well, Ora couldn't just leave her here. She was a _healer_. She quickly weighed the pros and cons of using magic to get the woman back to her house. Her magic would probably best be used for actually _healing _the woman, so Ora decided that it was close enough to just carry her.__

__Or, well. Drag her._ _

__Ora hooked her arms under the woman's armpits and started to pull her toward the cottage._ _

__“Why are heroes so heavy?”_ _

__Not that Ora had much experience, but. The woman was quite clearly a hero of some kind. Armour, obviously-battle-wounds, and that kind of muscle were only found on knights and other heroic types._ _

__Ora finally managed to get her inside and onto the guest bed. She wanted nothing more than to lie down for a few minutes and catch her breath, but time was not on her side._ _

__Kiri was still in the cottage, and clearly displeased at having new people in his space without advanced warning. He flew over to Ora and squawked indignantly in her ear._ _

__Ora shooed him away from her face without looking away from the knight. “She’s a patient, Kiri. You’ll just have to deal with it. Go get my supplies.”_ _

__The stab wounds she could take care of with some salve and proper wrapping, but the head injury would take some magical intervention, and she should probably check for further injuries, just in case._ _

__Well, at the very least, this was what Ora was good at._ _

__Kiri returned with her healing kit, and Ora got to work. She started by getting the knight out of her armour, then pulling her shirt and trousers off, which Ora would normally be embarrassed about, but she had a job to do. In addition to the stab wounds she’d noticed earlier, there was quite a bit of bruising near the woman’s ribs. That couldn’t be good. Ora opted to focus on the laceration on her leg first, since it was the easiest to deal with. Some salve, a proper bandaging, and she was done._ _

__Okay. Now for the torso._ _

__Ora waved her hand over the woman’s body, and muttered a quiet “hevi”. It was a trick she’d picked up early on that allowed her to check for internal damage. As she’d suspected, several of the knight’s ribs were broken. Nine, in fact._ _

__“How are you still alive?” Ora muttered to herself, awed._ _

__Kiri bit at her ear, and she snapped herself out of her stupor. Right. Fix first, marvel later._ _

__She applied salve to the two major stabs and to some of the smaller cuts, then wrestled the woman into a sitting position so she could wrap everything. She wasn’t much lighter without the armour._ _

__After that whole ordeal, it was time to do some actual magic. She placed one hand lightly on the woman’s forehead, over the gash, and the other over her ribs._ _

__“Aulo.”_ _

__She could feel the magic draining out of her, and pulled away before she could use all of it up. The damage wouldn’t be completely fixed, but the woman’s life was no longer in danger, so she considered it enough._ _

__Kiri was still glaring at her._ _

__Ora sighed. “I’m sorry for snapping at you, but this is my house, and this is what I do here.”_ _

__No response._ _

__She rolled her eyes, and briefly wondered when appeasing a bird had become an important part of her daily life._ _

__“If I make soup, will you forgive me?”_ _

__Kiri still didn’t make a sound, but he did climb onto her shoulder, so she took it as an affirmative._ _

__She _was_ hungry, and if the knight woke up she’d need to feed her something. Healing takes energy, and energy requires food. _ _

__The guest bed was pressed against the wall across from the kitchen so she could keep an eye on her patients while she cooked, something she’d done entirely accidentally, but was forever grateful for._ _

__It didn’t take her long to get the soup going, even with Kiri's attempts at stealing ingredients out of her hands whenever he got the chance._ _

__“If you keep that up,” she told him after his fourth run at the potatoes, “you aren’t getting any.”_ _

__He stopped after that, choosing instead to mope sullenly on a shelf amongst the fresh herbs._ _

__“I’m not going to feel bad about this. You brought it upon yourself.” Ora scolded, dumping the potatoes into the pot and starting on her search for the carrots. She could have sworn she’d gotten them out already. She shrugged and walked over to the pantry and dug around, but still couldn’t find any._ _

__From his perch on the shelf behind her, she heard Kiri screech._ _

__“For the last time,” she sighed, exasperated, as she extricated herself from the pantry, “I will not have that attitude in my house- Oh. Hello”_ _

__The knight was standing in front of her, looking confused and still a little unsteady on her feet. She must have gotten up while Ora was in the pantry._ _

__“You really shouldn’t be up just yet. I did what I could, but you’re still healing.”_ _

__The woman blinked and took a small step forward, nearly tripping over her own feet. Ora rushed forward and grabbed her forearms to hold her up._ _

__“Back to bed with you. Come on.”_ _

__“No, no, I have to get back out, they need me.” She struggled against Ora’s grip, trying to push herself toward the door._ _

__“You aren’t of any use to anyone in your state. You can barely stand.” Ora said gently, switching their positioning so the knight’s arm was over her shoulders. She used her now-free hand to feel the woman's forehead. She was burning up. “And now you’ve got a fever too. You aren’t going anywhere.”_ _

__The woman was still fighting against Ora’s efforts to get her back to bed, and Ora was almost glad she was half-dead on her feet. If she was causing this much trouble now, she could only imagine how hard it would be to manage her when she was at full strength. Ora found herself (to her horror) impressed at the people that had managed to take her out, and also wondering how many they had been._ _

__“Bahral’s still out there, he doesn’t know where I am, I’ve gotta find him.” The knight’s words were slurring together now, and she started to go limp against Ora, even as she continued to make a few token attempts at pulling away._ _

__“I’ll help you find him when you’re better, okay?”_ _

__“Not good ‘nuff… he’s an idiot, I needa find him _now_.”_ _

__Ora laughed despite herself, and small one she tried to keep hidden._ _

__Apparently, she failed, because the woman was now openly gaping at her. She’d also stopped resisting, and Ora managed to get her to lie down on the bed, and even tucked her in._ _

__“I’ll get something for that fever, and there’ll be something ready to eat when you wake up, alright?”_ _

__“M’not sleeping.” the knight insisted._ _

__Ora smiled softly at her, and put a hand on her forehead. This was something of a dirty trick, but she couldn’t have a very determined and delirious knight stumbling out of the house while she wasn’t paying attention._ _

__“Tseli.”_ _

__The woman blinked once, twice, and then her eyes shut, and she was asleep._ _

__Ora sighed tiredly and went back to the kitchen. Kiri was still there, and if he wasn’t a bird and entirely incapable of facial expressions, she would say he looked smug._ _

__“I would’ve noticed before she got out the door.”_ _

__Kiri cawed and flapped his wings at her and she shook her head, turning back to her woefully neglected soup. It didn’t seem to have suffered too much damage. She went to the counter and started peeling carrots, only realizing after the third one that something was amiss. She looked over at Kiri, who was preening himself innocently. Ora shook her head, vowing not to question it._ _

__“I’ll get you something sparkly next time I’m in town, you little devil.”_ _

__Kiri chirped happily._ _

__***_ _

__The next morning, Ora woke up early and checked on the knight. Still asleep, still breathing, and not nearly as warm as the day before. Good._ _

__She made herself some tea and bread as quietly as possible, and ate in peaceful silence, until she heard a loud groan from the guest bed._ _

__“Awake, then?”she called casually. There was another groan._ _

__“Am I dead?”_ _

__“I should hope not, after all the work I put in.” Ora teased, standing up and making another cup of tea._ _

__She walked over to the bed and handed the cup to the knight, who was sitting up and poking at her ribs, flinching each time she made contact. Ora gave her a look and she stopped, looking sheepish, and took the cup from her. She drained the whole thing in about three seconds._ _

__“Thirsty?”_ _

__“Not anymore. How long was I out?”_ _

__“Well I found you yesterday afternoon-”_ _

__“Oh thank the gods.” She sighed in relief. “Thank you for taking care of me.” She was deeply earnest, bowing her head while she thanked Ora. “What's your name?”_ _

__“Ora.”_ _

__“Ora.” Ilei said once, slowly, like she was testing it out. She smiled at Ora. “Pretty. I'm Ilei.”_ _

__Ora’s face was warmer than it and been a few seconds ago. “Nice to see you conscious, Ilei. Do you want something to eat?”_ _

__Ilei looked as though Ora had just offered to give her the moon. “ _Please_.”_ _

__Ora laughed, and Ilei grinned at her._ _

__“Stay here, I’ll get you some soup.”_ _

__She did as she’d promised, and came back shortly after with the previous night’s leftovers. Ilei ate like a dying woman, which, in all fairness, she had been up until quite recently._ _

__She flopped back on the bed as soon as she finished, seeming to instantly regret the decision, if the pained wince upon impact was anything to go by._ _

__“I’d advise against sudden movements. Your ribs are still tender.”_ _

__Ilei nodded from amongst the bedding. “Sounds good.”_ _

__“So if you don’t mind me asking, how did this happen?” Ora grabbed a chair from the kitchen table, pulled it up beside the bed, and sat down._ _

__“Got beat up by some bandits. Nothing huge.” She shrugged, and although Ora had known her (lucid) for all of ten minutes, she still had the feeling Ilei was downplaying the situation._ _

__“How many bandits?”_ _

__“... eleven.”_ _

__Ora very nearly choked on air. “Eleven?! By yourself?”_ _

__“Well my friend Bahral and I were escorting a group of refugees to Tuldor, and someone needed to get them to safety, so he went with them-”_ _

__“-and you took on eleven bandits by yourself.” Ora finished for her, deadpan._ _

__Ilei at least had the decency to look embarrassed. “Someone had to.”_ _

__Ora continued to stare at her in complete disbelief. “Wandering knights really are something else.”_ _

__Ilei laughed, loudly and suddenly, like it had been surprised out of her. “Well, you aren’t wrong.” she paused for a second and sat up, looking around. “Did you find my sword?”_ _

__Ora shook her head. “No, sorry. You didn’t have it when I found you.”_ _

__Ilei looked crestfallen. “Oh.”_ _

__“I can go look for it, if you’d like.” Ora offered, almost before she’d had the chance to think about it._ _

__Ilei brightened immediately. “You’d do that?”_ _

__“Of course.” Ora found herself saying, only partially of her own volition. She was acting strangely today._ _

__“I normally wouldn’t ask, but it was a present from Bahral and his family and there’s a bunch of cool elven magic on it, and I’ve had it forever.” Ilei said sheepishly, like she was ashamed to be asking._ _

__“I can’t promise I’ll find it, but I can go back to where I found you and check. Are you alright on your own for a little while?”_ _

__Ilei nodded. “Yeah, I’ll be fine. Thank you again. For everything.”_ _

__“I should be back in about an hour.” She said quickly, getting up from the chair and making her way to the door. “Don’t move too much!”_ _

__“I won’t!”_ _

__Ora stepped outside and closed the door. She double checked the house protection wards, and added another one to the lock, just in case Ilei got any ideas about trying to run off while she was gone._ _

__She nodded to herself when she was satisfied with her work, and hurried along the path she’d taken yesterday, comfortable enough now that she was back in her element that she didn’t notice the hooded figure crouching in the bushes beside the house._ _


	2. The Raider

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have 15 chapters finished and I'll probably post them all today just to get it done. Probably.

Ora found the sword. 

Of course, it was up the tree that Ilei had fallen out of when Ora had first found her, and completely inaccessible to anyone of average (or slightly below average) upper body strength.

“Really?” she asked it, exasperated. 

It didn’t answer her.

She held out her hand in the direction of the sword. “Tahira.”

Nothing happened. 

She tried again, more firmly this time. Still nothing. Her magic was working, since the rune was glowing, but the sword seemed to be magically immune, which was _very _annoying. Ora stamped her foot in frustration, and circled the tree once, vainly hoping to find an easier way up.__

__There was one branch that she could reach, and she spent a few seconds hanging off of it before her arms gave up and she fell gracelessly to the ground, likely bruising her tailbone in the process. She stood up and dusted herself off, glaring at the sword, which hadn’t moved at all._ _

__Well, if nothing else, she knew where it was, and once Ilei was better, she could retrieve it herself._ _

__People rarely passed through this part of the forest, but Ora still didn’t feel comfortable leaving such a nice sword out in the open, for someone slightly taller and more muscular to grab. She cast a conceal spell on the tree, and the sword, to her irritation, disappeared too._ _

__“Seriously? _That_ you respond to?!”_ _

__Realizing that to any potential onlookers she appeared to be yelling at empty air, she picked up what was left of her dignity and headed homewards, albeit grumpily._ _

__Unfortunately, today didn’t seem to be her day, because she’d barely even stepped back into her clearing when she was lifted into the air and slammed backwards into a tree._ _

__“ _You_.” her attacker was a tall, muscular man, with a murderous expression on his face. He was holding her up with one hand, and the other was wrapped around the handle of a terrifying battleaxe. “What did you do to her?!”_ _

__Ora made an educated guess, assumed he meant Ilei and that he was one of the bandits she’d taken on, back to finish her off._ _

__She squirmed and clawed at the hand clamped around her neck, but she was still pinned. “As if I’d tell you.” she choked out. She knew that provoking the man with a large axe who was in the middle of crushing her windpipe was a bad idea, but her priority was, and had always been, her patients. And Ilei was her patient, so she would stand by that._ _

__“You’ll regret this, hag.” The bandit pressed in closer, and the edges of Ora’s vision started to go fuzzy. She needed to get out of here, _soon_. _ _

__Her attacker was wearing a cloak, and a light breeze made it flutter around his legs. It was a strange thing to notice, but the oxygen deprivation was starting to get to her._ _

__Suddenly, an idea struck her. She used the last of her strength to reach out and grab the edge of the cloak._ _

__“Lehir.”_ _

__The words barely made it out, but it worked. The area she’d been holding caught fire, and the rest of the cape soon went with it._ _

__The man let out a colorful stream of curses and released her in favour of trying to put out the fire, and Ora ran as fast as she could to the door of the cottage, paused the ward on the door and dove inside. She quickly put the defenses back in place, just in time for the entire house to shake as something heavy ran into it. There was a roar of anger and more swearing, then another impact._ _

__“You can’t stay in there forever!”_ _

__He was right, but that was a problem for later._ _

__Ora turned to look at Ilei, who was sitting up in bed, looking afraid for the first time since Ora had met her._ _

__“I was asleep, what happened?”_ _

__Ora smile ruefully. “I think one of your bandit friends tracked you down.”_ _

__Ilei frowned. “That’s impossible. I took all of them out.”_ _

__“Is there anyone else who might be after you?”_ _

__Ilei laughed, somewhere between amused and desperate. “I've been wandering the country fighting people for five years. _Everyone_ is after me.”_ _

__The house was still shaking with intermittent impacts._ _

__“Can you describe them? I might remember who it is.”_ _

__“Uh… tall, muscular, blond beard, green eyes-”_ _

__“-yells a lot, big scary axe?” Ilei finished, and Ora nodded. Ilei brightened immediately._ _

__“Bahral!”_ _

__“Wait a second.” Ora said. “Your friend Bahral, the elf? THAT'S who's trying to break in my door?!”_ _

__“What, did you think all elves were dainty little archers?” Ilei teased._ _

__“Well, no, but-” Ora spluttered, “he looks like a half giant! Or a well-groomed orc!”_ _

__“Well, he's not.” Ilei said, forcing herself to her feet, and taking a few shaky steps before Ora's healer instincts took over and she ran over to help her. “Can you open the door for him, please?”_ _

__Ora coughed. “Well, I kind of… set him on fire, so you might want to talk to him through the door and explain the situation before we let him in.”_ _

__Ilei seemed to be trying very hard not to laugh. “You set him on fire?”_ _

__“He was trying to kill me!”_ _

__Ilei turned her face away politely, but Ora could still feel her body shaking with silent mirth._ _

__They made it to the door, and waited for a break in the assault._ _

__“Ral!” Ilei called when it finally arrived. “It's me, I'm okay!”_ _

__“Ilei?” Came the reply through the door. “Oh thank the gods. Give me a second, I think if I use my axe I can get the door open-”_ _

__Ora squeaked in distress, and Ilei smothered another laugh._ _

__Ora glared at her. She liked that door, okay?_ _

__“You don't have to do that, Ral. The witch you met? She's friendly, she's going to open the door for you.”_ _

__“How do I know she's not making you say that?”_ _

__Ilei sighed. “She healed me. I would be dead without her. Just trust me, okay?”_ _

__It was quiet for a few seconds. Then, just as Ora was starting to get worried:_ _

__“Fine.”_ _

__Ora stepped forward, removed the ward, and opened the door._ _

__Bahral was standing in the doorway, still huge and intimidating, but with his axe strapped to his back and the still smoldering cape in his hands, he seemed easier to handle._ _

__He spotted Ilei and took a step toward her, arms open, but Ora intervened, stepping between the pair before he could get to her._ _

__“Her ribs are still healing, as are the stab wounds, so please be careful with her.”_ _

__Bahral nodded seriously, and she stepped aside. He practically had to kneel to hug Ilei properly, but she didn’t seem to mind, or be in any pain, so Ora went to the kitchen to give them some privacy and make some tea._ _

__“I’m so glad you’re okay.”_ _

__Ilei laughed, but she sounded a little choked up. “Come on, have some faith. We’ve taken out rock trolls together, you really think I’ll die at the hands of some bandits?”_ _

__“Fourteen to one isn’t a fair fight, even for you.”_ _

__Ora tuned in at that, leveling Ilei with a glare._ _

__“Fourteen?”_ _

__Ilei stiffened up and shoved a confused looking Bahral away, turning to Ora with a very fake smile on her face._ _

__“He must’ve miscounted. I did tell you he was an idiot, right?”_ _

__“No, it was definitely fourteen.” Bahral said. He seemed to be aware of Ilei trying to escape Ora’s disdain, but actively ignored it. “How many did she tell you it was?”_ _

__“Eleven.”_ _

__He snorted. “Typical.”_ _

__“Good to know she’s always like this.” Ora said, pouring a cup of tea for each of them._ _

__“I’m right here, you know!” Ilei exclaimed._ _

__“It was even worse when we were kids. You know she once tried to go hunt a banshee with a broken leg?”_ _

__“Well she tried to go looking for you with a concussion, fever delirium, nine broken ribs and three stab wounds, so I think we’re tied.” Ora said with a wry smile. Ilei looked about ready to melt into the floor._ _

__“Thank you, by the way.” Bahral said, voice turning serious. “For helping her. And I’m sorry I called you a hag. And tried to kill you.”_ _

__“I’m sorry for setting you on fire.”_ _

__There was an awkward silence for a few seconds, then Bahral spoke again._ _

__“Okay, I really need to hug someone properly and if it can’t be Ilei it’s gonna be you.”_ _

__Ora made a weak sound of protest, but it was quickly engulfed by Bahral’s arms as he lifted her into the air. Ora was thankful for her foresight in getting him to treat Ilei with care. She was pretty sure her back wasn’t supposed to crack like that. Bahral finally put her down, slightly dazed but otherwise unharmed._ _

__“Very thorough.” she said, for lack of a better way to express her feelings about nearly having her soul squeezed out, but in a good way._ _

__Bahral beamed at her._ _

__Ora gestured to the cups, now at a suitable temperature for consumption._ _

__“Tea?”_ _

__***_ _

__They talked for a while, Bahral and Ilei regaling Ora with tales of their adventures, all of which kind of made Ora want to wrap them up in blankets and never let them leave the house, because while these were certainly the worst injuries Ilei had ever had to deal with simultaneously, that seemed to be a result of sheer luck rather than any kind of self-preservation instincts._ _

__They were in the middle of recounting a truly nerve-wracking fight with a ghoul when there was a panicked knock at the door._ _

__“Ora!”_ _

__Ora was on her feet in a second, and rushed to get the door. She opened it to find Netta, leaning against the house's wall, breathing heavily. Her dark hair was plastered to her forehead with sweat, and she seemed to be on the verge of collapsing._ _

__“What are doing here? I didn’t expect you for another week!”_ _

__Netta smiled tiredly and laid a hand on her stomach. “The little one had other ideas.”_ _

__“Did you walk here by yourself?” Ora asked, placing Netta’s arm over her shoulders and walking her inside._ _

__“Hakir’s out in the fields, and it would’ve taken me longer to get him than just come here.”_ _

__Ora laughed and shook her head. “You will never cease to amaze me, Netta.” She led her into the kitchen, and had her prop herself up on the counter while she went to stip the sheets on the guest bed._ _

__“Hello.” Netta said, polite but confused, to Ilei and Bahral. “Ora didn’t tell me I was going to have an audience.”_ _

__“I’ll send them out, don’t worry.” Ora called, throwing the sheets into a pile to be cleaned._ _

__Netta laughed, though it sounded slightly pained. “I’m on my third now, I really don’t mind.”_ _

__Ora glanced over at her two visitors. Both of them were looking a little green. She held back a chuckle. “It’s alright, I had a job for them anyway. Which field is Hakir working in right now?”_ _

__“East.”_ _

__The closest one. Perfect._ _

__“Bahral?”_ _

__“Yeah?”_ _

__“There’s a map by the door. Go to the eastern field and ask for Hakir, then bring him back here.”_ _

__Bahral nodded, relieved, and rushed out the door._ _

__“What about me?” Ilei asked. “I don't want to stay either!”_ _

__“You're still injured, I can't have you running amok.”_ _

__Netta leaned more heavily on her arms and groaned loudly._ _

__“The baby's coming whether you want it to or not, so just sit outside if you can't handle it.”_ _

__Ilei, looking a little ashamed, did just that, limping over to the door and going out on the porch._ _

__“Alright Netta.” Ora said, gesturing to the freshly made bed. “Let’s do this.”_ _

__***  
Bahral made it back, Netta’s husband in tow, and loitered outside with Ilei while they waited to be let back in._ _

__Hakir was, ironically, the most calm in the group. He’d done this before, and he trusted both Ora and his wife to get through._ _

__“So,” Ilei asked, in an effort to diffuse the nervous tension in the air, “are you hoping for a boy or a girl?”_ _

__Hakir shrugged. “I don’t really mind, as long as it's less trouble than the first two.”_ _

__Bahral smiled, and looked like he was about to say something, when the door opened and Ora appeared, looking exhausted, but beaming all the same._ _

__“It’s a boy.”_ _

__Hakir grinned and Ilei clapped him on the back, and the whole procession headed back inside._ _

__“You can head home now, but Netta’s not to do anything too physically demanding for at least a few days.”_ _

__Hakir nodded and walked over to his wife, who was on lying in bed with a bundle of blankets in her arms. He kissed her on the forehead and gently took the baby from her._ _

__“I brought the cart, so you won’t have to walk back.”_ _

__“I should hope not.” Netta said, getting unsteadily to her feet. “I did all the work today.”_ _

__Hakir smiled at her, and passed the baby back._ _

__“We’ll send some food by later.”_ _

__“Oh, that’s not necessary,” Ora said quickly, but Netta waved her off._ _

__“None of that. It’s the least we can do for everything you do for the village.”_ _

__Ora inclined her head in thanks and escorted the newly expanded family outside._ _

__When she came back, Ilei and Bahral were standing exactly where she’d left them, looking a little shell shocked._ _

__“You do that every _day_?” Bahral asked finally._ _

__“Not every day. Sometimes I don’t see anyone, and it’s usually not something as big as a birth. This is actually the most excitement I’ve seen in weeks.”_ _

__Bahral and Ilei exchanged an impressed look, which Ora didn’t see._ _

__“The sun’s going to go down soon. You can both stay the night, but Ilei should be ready to go tomorrow morning.”_ _

__“Really?” Ilei perked up immediately, the excitement in her voice practically visible._ _

__“Yes. But you aren’t completely healed, so nothing too dangerous for a little while longer.”_ _

__“Don’t worry, I’ll keep an eye on her.” Bahral said, tousling Ilei’s hair._ _

__Ilei scoffed. “Like you could stop me.”_ _

__“Wanna bet?”_ _

__Ora fought back a smile. “Let’s not find out, alright?”_ _

__The knights gave her twin sheepish looks, and she shook her head, trying hard to suppress a laugh. She was going to miss them._ _

__The sudden realization struck a nerve in her, and she quickly turned away from the pair._ _

__“Come and help me with dinner. You’re earning your keep tonight.”_ _

__***_ _

__Bahral passed out almost immediately after they finished eating, and was snoring like a congested dragon on the makeshift bed Ora had set up for him._ _

__Ilei was still awake, sitting at the table with Ora and shaking her head at him in fond exasperation._ _

__“He really can sleep anywhere.”_ _

__Ora smiled softly, but it felt a bit forced. It was strange; she’d never minded being alone before. She’d come here specifically to be alone, and she’d liked it. The brief visits from her patients were always enough for her, but something about the bright vibrance and friendship between Ilei and Bahral made her want something similar in a way that nothing else had._ _

__“Are you alright?”_ _

__Ilei’s voice snapped Ora out of her thoughts. “Hm? Oh, yeah. I’m fine. Just tired.”_ _

__Ilei didn’t look convinced, but she let it drop. They sat in silence for a few more seconds, before Ilei spoke up again._ _

__“I know that this is sudden, and I barely know anything about you, but...” she trailed off trying to find the right words. The pause lasted just long enough for Ora to start panicking, and then she spoke again. “Do you want to come with us? I know you have a life here, but I was thinking that you might want to do something bigger with your talents than help one village.”_ _

__Ora’s hands tightened into fists under the table. “ “One village” might not be worth helping to you, but they need me. I don’t care if you think I’m wasting my talents, this is where I’m happy, and I can’t just uproot my whole life and leave them. Villages get attacked, and someone needs to clean up the mess.”_ _

__“That came out wrong, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that.”_ _

__“We can’t all save the world, Ilei.” Ora said cooly, standing up and starting to her room._ _

__“Ora, wait-”_ _

__“Goodnight.” Ora snapped, closing the door behind her with a decisive slam._ _

__The second she lay down, she felt the anger drain out of her. This was the right thing to do, though. She knew that. She came here to avoid exactly what Ilei was asking her to do, and she was telling the truth about the village. They had no other healers, no other magic users. They needed her, and she wouldn’t abandon them._ _

__Satisfied with her justification, she rolled over and tried to sleep, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that she was making a mistake._ _

__***_ _

__When Ora woke up the next morning, the house was empty. She decided that was probably for the best. A good, clean break, none of that residual unsettled feeling from yesterday._ _

__Right._ _

__She’d just managed to convince herself that she was okay when Kiri flew in through the open window, screeching bloody murder._ _

__“Not now.” She told him grouchily, but he was insistent, flapping his wings in her face and nipping at her until she finally relented and followed him outside._ _

__“Why are you taking me to the village?” she asked. He just squawked and flew faster, forcing Ora to run to catch up with him._ _

__“Seriously, what is going- oh gods.”_ _

__The village was at the bottom of a small valley, so she didn’t see what had happened right away, but she could see the smoke rising from below, and she knew what she would find._ _

__“No, no, no,” She repeated uselessly as she slid down the hillside to the village, nearly tripping over her feet several time in her haste to get to the bottom._ _

__Once she got there, all her hopes of being wrong evaporated. The village was on fire, and she stood, frozen in horror, watching it burn._ _


	3. The Witch

A loud squawk brought Ora back to her senses. 

“Find Ilei and Bahral!” she yelled to Kiri, and he flew off. 

Maybe it was unfair to bring them back so soon after they’d left, but this was their job, wasn’t it? And she sorely needed the help.

“Ora? Is that you?”

A figure ran out of the wall of flames. Hakir, coughing as he sped toward her.

“Thank the gods. We got everyone upwind, but the Oreds got trapped in their house and we haven’t been able to get them out.”

Ora nodded and took off. She knew the village so well that even with it burning around her, she could find her way to the Ored household.

A couple of the village men were trying to get the door open, but the blaze was so strong that they couldn’t touch it for more than a few seconds, and they were all coughing from taking in too much smoke.

“Go join the others!” Ora yelled. “I’ll handle this!”

They nodded and ran off. The trust they placed in Ora scared her sometimes, especially on days like today, when she wasn’t sure if she could actually keep her promises.

The house looked to be a few minutes away from caving in at most, so Ora knew she had to act quickly.

“Get behind something!” 

She rolled up her sleeves and pointed both palms at the house.

“Biyel!”

A blast of cold air emanated from her hands to the house, freezing the the flames and coating the whole structure in ice.

She ran to the door and fought it open. The house was groaning, the weight of the ice threatening to collapse the already weakened structure. 

“Everybody out! Quickly!” 

The Oreds, all six of them, rushed passed her with shouted thank yous. She followed them out of the inferno and up the hill where the villagers had taken up residence.

She checked them over first, dispensing healing magic here and there for burns and those who’d inhaled too much smoke. 

The thought of conserving her magic in case something worse happened never even crossed her mind. Everyone had lost their homes, their lives, everything they’d know. For them, there _was_ nothing worse.

Bahral and Ora rushed in after the fire had mostly burned itself out, both out of breath. Ilei was still weaponless. She was injured, she had no sword, and even after the way Ora had treated her yesterday, she’d come back. It made something heavy settle in the pit of Ora’s stomach, and she barely noticed Kiri settling himself on her shoulder.

“What happened?”

Ora returned Netta’s baby, who she’d been looking over, and addressed Ilei, forcing down the roiling shame in her stomach.

“Someone burned down the village. I’ve asked around, but no one saw anything.”

Ilei nodded. “Ral and I will go check it out.”

“Thank you.”

Ora turned her attention back to the baby, Dahrey, more to soothe her nerves than because he actually needed her help. He was adorable, and burbling happily, unaware of the horror he’d just lived through.

“He’s alright, isn’t he?” Netta asked worriedly, startling Ora.

“Yes, he’s fine. Perfect.”

Some of the tension in Netta’s shoulders released, and she put a hand on Ora’s shoulder. 

“Take a break. We’ll be alright for now. You aren’t of any help if you run yourself ragged.”

Ora sighed and ran a hand over her face. “You’re right. I’ll be back in a bit.”

Netta smiled at her, and Ora inclined her head respectfully and hurried off, Kiri still on her shoulder.

She made her way back to the tree where Ilei’s sword was hidden, and reversed the conceal spell on it. 

“Can you knock that down for me?” 

Kiri gave her a “haven’t I already done enough?” look, but obeyed nonetheless. She’d have to give him a whole steak at this rate.

“Thank you.”

She picked up the sword, which was heavier than she’d anticipated, and opened up the path to her house.

Once she was there, she threw together a travel bag, and split her food and healing supplies into two groups, one to keep, and one for the villagers.

After she was done, she took a moment on the porch to lock up properly and to say a goodbye to the place she’d called home for three years.

But she still had work to do, and she had to leave sooner than she wanted.

The villagers made a valiant effort to deflect her offers of food, but after winning over the children with promises of sweets, they accepted it.

“Thank you, Ora.” Narmund, the patriarch of the Oreds told her earnestly, but Ora waved him off.

“Least I could do.”

“No.” He said firmly. “Don’t minimize the work you’ve done. You were a blessing to the village. And you will be a blessing to wherever you end up.”

“I didn’t say I was leaving.” She said quickly, choking down the lump in her throat at his kindness. 

“The travel pack kind of gives it away.” 

“Right.”

She was saved from more awkwardness by Bahral running up to her. “Ora, you need to see this.”

***

In the center of what had once been the village square, a giant rune had been carved, one she’d hoped never to see again.

“Khana.” Ora whispered when she saw it, stupefied. “Destroy.”

Ilei nodded grimly. “We’ve seen this before. Villages completely leveled, and only this left behind.”

“Do you have any idea who’s doing this?”

“All we know is that they leave that mark behind. The attacks are never the same, and we haven’t been able to pick out a pattern in the villages they go after.” Bahral answered. “With one this bad, we usually tell people to relocate afterwards, in case it happens again.”

“Most of these people have never left the valley,” Ora said. “They won’t know where to go, much less how to get there.”

“If we take them to the main roads, there are guides who’ll take them to the nearest city, probably Kalassee or Tuldor.”

“Have these attacks really happened that often?” 

“Not the Kahnal ones, no. But that’s not the only thing in Sakaeli that can drive someone out of their home.” Ilei sounded almost bitter, which Ora supposed made sense. She’d probably seen more people forced out of their houses by something beyond their control than Ora could even dream of.

Ora had dealt with her fair share of magical issues, from orc and troll attacks to pixie kidnappings, but she’d assumed that her village was just particularly unlucky. From the sounds of it, it was the other way around.

“We’ll do that then. Bahral, could you go get anyone who’s able to look through the houses and see if anything’s survived? They’ll need whatever they can find.”

Bahral nodded and left. Ilei raised an eyebrow at her.

“Got a job for me?”

Ora took a deep breath. “No, actually. I wanted to talk to you.”

Ilei leaned her weight on one hip and made a “go on” gesture.

“First of all, your sword’s up the hill with the villagers. I figured you’d want it back.”

Ilei stood up a little straighter at its mention, but otherwise didn’t react. 

“And I’d like to apologize for what I said yesterday. I wasn’t really angry with you, but I’ve never been keen on fighting, and up until this morning, I thought that I was doing enough by helping these people. But clearly,” she gestured at the ashen wrecks around them, “it’s not enough. Fixing the problems once they’ve happened isn’t enough. I want to keep this from happening to anyone else’s village, anyone else’s home. I’d like to come with you and Bahral, if you’ll have me.”

Ora let out a shaky breath, not meeting Ilei’s gaze, afraid of what she’d find if she did. The idea of Ilei saying no hadn’t occurred to her until she’d said everything out loud, and it had taken her so long to convince herself to ask at all that the idea of rejection was terrifying. 

“Of course you can come.” Ilei said warmly, tilting Ora’s chin up and smiling at her. “I asked you to, didn’t I?”

“That was before I-”

“I had no right to push you like that. But you’re welcome to come with us.” she snorted. “Bahral will be overjoyed. He hasn’t shut up about your cooking all day.”

Ora smiled despite herself. “Really?”

Ilei rolled her eyes. “You can’t even imagine. And as if that wasn’t bad enough, he wouldn’t stop say-” she stopped, and a light blush bloomed on her cheeks. 

“What?” Ora asked, intrigued.

“Doesn’t matter. I hear you have a sword for me?”

Ora decided to let it go, at least for now, and took Ilei to reclaim her sword.

***

Unsurprisingly, Bahral’s scavenging team found very little, but they were lucky in at least one sense. The harvest was in full swing, and the barns were kept far from the village and had escaped unscathed, so food wasn’t going to be an issue. Everyone who could carry a sack was given one, and by noon, everyone was ready to go. 

Ilei led the way to the main road, while Ora took up the rear and made sure no one fell behind, and Bahral stayed in the middle, keeping the little ones entertained with songs and games while they went, and carrying those who got too tired to keep walking. It took them until mid afternoon to reach the main road. They set up a makeshift camp on the roadside and a meal was prepared while they waited for Kiri to come back with a guide.

Ora helped with the food, but didn’t eat much, opting to spend time saying her goodbyes instead. It was nearing sundown when the guide finally arrived, a young boy with a bow who couldn’t have been more than fourteen. Ora was a little apprehensive about leaving the people she’d cared for for so long in the hands of a teenager, but Bahral and Ilei both greeted him by name and lauded him as one of the best, so she conceded. 

“Where will we be going?” Ora asked while the guide introduced himself to the village.

“We wanted to retrace our steps, go back to the villages where the Kahnal attacked and see if we can find out anything more about them.” Ilei replied.

“Can we leave now?” she asked hesitantly. “I’ve already said goodbye to everyone once, I don’t think I can do it again.”

Ilei smiled understandingly. “Of course. I’ll go get Ral. We’re going East, if you want to start now.”

“Thank you.”

Ilei didn’t answer, having already melted into the crowd in search of Bahral. 

Ora took one last look at the village, and remembered a final bit of unfinished business. 

She whistled sharply, and Kiri flew out of wherever he'd been hiding and landed on a branch a little above her head.

“Thank you for your help today. I don't have anything to pay you with, but I have one last favour to ask.”

Kiri cocked his head, listening.

“Go with the village? You really helped them today, and I think they could use a bit of consistency. I know it's a lot to ask, but they need you more than I do now.”

Kiri seemed to consider for a few seconds, then drifted down from his perch and nipped at her ear, and flew back towards the crowd.

Ora swallowed around the lump in her throat.

“He's just a stupid bird.” she told herself, but it didn't help. Instead of continuing to dwell on it, she turned East and started to walk.

She’d been going maybe three minutes when she heard a shout from behind her. 

“Ora!”

Ora turned around to find Lucra, Netta and Hakir’s eldest, running toward her, and she felt an unconscious smile tug at the corners of her mouth. The girl skidded to a halt in front of her, out of breath.

“You’re leaving?”

Ora nodded. “I’m going to make sure that this doesn’t happen to any other village.”

“But we won’t have anyone to protect us if you go.” she said, voice trembling.

Ora felt her heart break, but she didn’t show it. Lucra had lost everything today, she didn’t need to see Ora break down too.

“Don’t be silly,” Ora said, dropping to her knees so she and Lucra were the same height and forcing a smile. “The village doesn’t need me to protect it.”

Lucra still looked skeptical, so Ora did the first thing that came to mind.

“Have your parents told you about Faeric?”

Lucra shook her head, a look of confusion replacing the skepticism.

“It’s the language that we use for runes,” she explained, holding out one of her arms so Lucra could see her tattoos, “and for names. And in Faeric, “Lucra” means “defender”.”

“Really?” Lucra gasped, eyes shining with excitement rather than tears.

Ora nodded, smiling. “See? The village already has one person to protect it, they don’t need me too.”

Lucra looked unsure. “It seems like a lot of work.”

Ora laughed. “It is, but think about it this way: you already take care of your little brothers, right?”

“Yeah…”

“It’s the same thing, just with some more people. And you’ve already got practice, so you’re going to be amazing.”

Lucra bit her lip and looked at the ground, and for a second Ora was worried that she’d misspoken, somehow made it worse, but then Lucra rushed forward and hugged her tightly. Ora was too surprised to respond for a second, but she reciprocated, squeezing back tightly. When Lucra pulled away, her jaw was set, determined.

“I’m going to be the best protector ever.” she declared firmly, and with such confidence that Ora instantly believed her. But before she could say so, Lucra ran off, back to her family, back to the village. The guide had apparently finished introducing himself, and everyone was picking themselves up and getting ready to go.

Ora stood up and brushed herself off.

“My Faeric is pretty terrible, but doesn’t “Lucra” mean “wildflower”?”

Ora jumped at Ilei’s voice behind her, suddenly so close. Bahral was with her, a few steps behind, fighting back a smile.

“Yes,” she admitted, not looking away from Lucra, who was insisting she carry her youngest brother and a pack.

“You need a break mama, I can do it!” she insisted, and Netta relented, handing Dahrey over and tousling her daughter’s hair.

Ora smiled, a bittersweet mixture of pride and sadness swirling together in her stomach. “But she doesn’t need to know that.”


	4. Sofra

“How long do you think it’ll take to get to the last village that got attacked?”

They’d set up camp after about an hour of walking, because travelling in the forest at night was not something Ora wanted to experiment with on her first day of being a hero.

“Three days, if we don’t get interrupted.” Bahral answered from where he and Ilei were starting a fire.

“So we should be there within the next two weeks.” Ilei said sarcastically.

“Do you really get stopped that often?”

“Around here?” The fire had been successfully lit, and Ilei dropped to the ground beside it, while Bahral got to work on sleeping mats. “Yeah. This area is in kind of a no man’s land, so they rely on wanderers like me and Ral to protect them.”

Ora had never really considered what other villages did when it came to raids or magical pests. A part of her had just kind of assumed every village had its own witch, but given how few powerful witches there were, that wasn’t realistic. Then again, just hoping for someone to happen to be there when you needed them seemed very inefficient, and she told Ilei so.

Ilei laughed. “I never said it was a _good_ system, but it’s what we’ve got. Big cities and the areas around them usually have armies to keep things under control, but we’re smack between Kalassee and Tuldor, and neither of them want to send troops this far out. So people around here get wanderers.”

“Or rogues.” Bahral added, joining Ilei by the fire.

Ilei’s expression soured. “Yeah. And rogues.”

“What’s wrong with rogues?”

“They’re basically wanderers without morals.” Bahral explained. “They charge ridiculous amounts for their services, and some of them even set up fake attacks to get money out of people.”

“That’s awful!” Ora exclaimed, horrified. “How could anyone do that?”

“Not everyone’s a hero, I guess.” Bahral shrugged. He seemed to notice Ora’s continued disgust, and added: “There are way fewer of them than proper knights.”

“Still,” Ilei said, “why anyone would want to _add_ to all the problems these people have to deal with is beyond me.” 

Bahral hummed in agreement. “Basically, since we're around and _not_ amoral jerks, we're probably going to get stopped fairly often.”

Ora nodded in understanding, though she wasn’t exactly pleased. She’d hoped to track down the Kahnal and get rid of them as quickly as possible, but that was seeming more and more naive. 

“The world sucks.”

Ilei laughed, then reached over and poked Ora’s side. 

“Yeah, but we’re here to make it suck less. Now get some sleep, you’re gonna need all the energy you can get.”

Ora gave her a tight smile, but made her way to one of the sleeping mats anyway. 

“I’ve never slept on the ground before.” she remarked as she settled in. It wasn’t very comfortable.

Bahral let out a bark of laughter. “Better get used to it. I haven’t slept in a bed in five years.”

“That’s because whenever we get the chance, you fall asleep on the floor before we can get you into one.”

“Then it must not happen very often, hm?”

Ora closed her eyes, and despite her discomfort, fell asleep to the sound of their bickering.

***

She awoke at sunrise, which wasn’t unusual for her. What was unusual was the presence of two other people, both snoring loudly. It must be a knight thing. That, and the fact that she felt like her spine was being stabbed with hot needles.

She stood up and stretched, and the needles relaxed a bit. Still, she wasn’t looking forward to waking up like this every morning.

Ora had never been one to sit idle, so she got to work on breakfast, which was mostly scraped together leftovers from the village’s crops. She doubted it would last them long, but if what Bahral and Ilei had told her was true, they were usually paid in food, and they were likely to get some kind of work before starvation was an issue.

She was nearly done when Ilei woke up and stumbled blearily over to her.

“Why are you awake so early?” she sounded downright contemptuous.

“I usually am.” Ora was aware that that wasn’t really an answer, but she didn’t feel ready to properly explain the reason.

Ilei either picked up on that, or was just too out of it to notice Ora’s dodging.

“Breakfast?”

“In five minutes.”

“I’ll go wake Bahral up.” Ilei yawned and walked over to Bahral’s mat. She gave him one swift kick to the stomach, and he sat up immediately, wild-eyed.

“Wazzgoin’on?”

Ora frowned. “That was a little rude.”

Ilei grinned at her. “I like to start him off with some adrenaline in the mornings. If I don’t he’s a zombie until noon.” 

Bahral stood up and nodded. “She’s right. I think I have permanent internal damage, but it’s worth it.”

Ora had known them less than a week, but she’d already decided to give up on understanding their friendship. 

“Well, hopefully your stomach is still intact. Breakfast is served.”

Bahral whooped and fist pumped, practically trampling Ilei in his effort to get to Ora first. She handed him his meal, and Ilei collected hers a few moments later. They ate together in silence, with both knights finishing before Ora was halfway done.

“Did you even taste it?” 

Bahral rubbed his stomach. “Yes, and it was delicious. But you’ve gotta learn to speed up, or something might eat _you_ before you’re done.”

Ora was fairly certain he was exaggerating, but ate a little more quickly anyway.

Nonetheless, by the time she finished, their camp was packed up and had vanished into Bahral’s satchel, which was magically enhanced to be unfillable. Ora had never been jealous of elf magic before, but that _was_ pretty useful.

“So we just…” she paused, thinking of how to phrase her question, “walk until someone stops us and asks for help?”

Ilei shrugged. “Pretty much.”

“Sounds exciting.”

Bahral smacked Ora on the back with a little more force than strictly necessary, sending her stumbling forward.

“Hey, if you get bored, we can always pick a fight with a rock troll. Shall we?”

***

Shockingly, they actually made decent headway before encountering their first problem. The problem took the form of a girl of about twelve running up to them on the main road and asking: “Are you guys heroes?”

Ilei laughed. “You could say that. Do you need help with something?”

The girl nodded gravely. “My family owns a farm a little ways from here, and our cows have been disappearing at night. My dad doesn’t think it’s worth bothering anyone over, but we’ve lost almost half the herd.”

“That definitely sounds like something we can help with. Lead the way.”

The girl beamed at them. “Thank you so much! I’m Sofra, by the way.” she stuck out her hand, and they each shook it. Sofra then turned on her heel and marched off decisively into the trees, and the group hurried after her. 

Ilei pulled Ora back after a little, since Bahral had engaged Sofra in conversation about the situation. 

“Kids are usually better at noticing these things than adults. Mostly because no one listens to them, so people aren’t as careful about what they do in front of them. Besides, even if it _is_ nothing, it doesn’t hurt to check.” she explained in a low whisper. “In case you were wondering.”

Ora nodded in agreement. “Back home, the kids were usually the ones who came to me first. And they’re more likely to try and do something about it themselves, so I tried to listen to them as much as I could.”

Ilei looked a little surprised. “Oh. Uh, good.”

“Why, did you think I didn’t believe her?”

“Well, you looked a little murderous, I wanted to make sure you understood.” Ilei admitted sheepishly.

“That’s just my face, Ilei.” Ora said flatly.

“Sorry.”

“What for?” Ora asked innocently, and Ilei looked at her like she’d grown an extra arm, smiling like she’d been surprised into it.

“Do you ever get less confusing?

Ora shrugged. “I’d assume so. I’ve never been close enough to someone to find out.”

“Well, you’re stuck with me and Ral, so I guess we’ll find out for sure, won’t we?” Ilei said with a crooked grin, seemingly recovered from her confusion.

Ora shrugged again, but she was smiling now. It was strange. The idea of having to spend so long with anyone was usually enough to petrify her, but with Ilei and Bahral, she didn’t mind so much.

They walked for a little while longer, until the trees suddenly dropped away, and they found themselves in a small grassy field in front of a farmhouse. Sofra stopped a few feet in front of it, and addressed the group.

“My dad might act like he’s mad, but I know he’s worried too. Just stand your ground and you should be fine.” 

She walked up to the door and opened it, with the others following. 

“Baba? I found some people to help us with the cows!”

There was some grumbling, then a short, stocky man with an impressive moustache made his way to the entrance. He took them in for a second, then turned to Sofra. 

“Go play outside.”

“But _I_ found them!” Sofra protested.

“And that means you’ve done enough. Go.”

Sofra bowed her head and went out the door, slowly, glancing up every once in a while to see if her father had changed his mind. He stared her down until she was out of sight, then sighed. 

“That girl, I swear… I’m sorry if she caused you any trouble.”

“She didn’t, sir. This is our job.” Ilei assured.

The man looked uncertain. “I can’t pay you, if that’s what your after. And you’ll have to sleep outside if you’re watching the herd.”

“Not a problem. Do you have any idea what’s been taking your animals?”

The man’s shoulders slumped. “None. We haven’t been able to see them in action.”

Bahral nodded pensively. “Well, we’ll stay near the herd, see if we have better luck.”

“Thank you. Sofra!”

Sofra popped through the door, far faster than anyone who’d been more than a foot away would have been able to.

“Yes Baba?”

Her father shook his head fondly. “Take them out to the pasture. They’re staying the night.”

Sofra’s grin toed the line between smug and genuine. “Okay!” She opened the door a little wider so Ora and the knights could get through, then skipped off towards a fenced off area that Ora assumed was the pasture.

“You can set yourselves up here. Good luck!” she ran back to the house without another word.

Bahral and Ilei got to work on the camp, waving off Ora’s offers of help. She sat down by the fence and watched instead, despite itching to be of some use. After a few minutes, she felt something warm and wet on her cheek and whipped around to face the fence. A large number of the cows had gathered around her, and one was licking her cheek. She pushed it off and wiped her cheek with her hand. 

“It’s nice to meet you too, but that was disgusting.”

Behind her, she heard laughter. She looked over her shoulder at Ilei and Bahral, who were both avoiding her eyes and trying very hard to look like they weren’t laughing. She glared at them, but the effect was dampened when another cow licked her hand. Ora pushed it’s muzzle away and patted it absently so it would stop.

“I’m sorry,” Ilei gasped out between giggles, “but you looked so offended.”

“Animals like the smell of magic! It happens all the time, it’s annoying.” 

“You’re still petting the cow.” Bahral pointed out, and Ora yanked her hand away. It mooed plaintively at her, and she resisted all of three seconds before she went back to petting it, ignoring the raucous laughter behind her.

***

They spent two uneventful nights at the farm. Bahral and Ilei continued to mock Ora for the cow’s affection for her, and she continued to pretend not to care. 

At sunset on the third day, Sofra’s father came out to see them by the pasture.

“If nothing happens tonight, I’m going to suggest you keep moving. You’ve done enough for us, I don’t want to impose further.”

Ilei looked like she was about to protest, but Ora spoke before she could. “Thank you for allowing us to stay for so long. We’ll leave in the morning.”

He nodded gruffly and went back to the house.

As soon as he was out of earshot, Ilei turned on her. “What was that about? We still haven’t found out what’s happening to the cows!”

“I know that,” Ora said diplomatically, “but we have to focus on finding the Khanal. We’ve done what we can for them, but if he’s asking us to leave, it’s because he wants us gone.”

Ilei didn’t look happy with the answer, but Bahral chose that moment to speak in Ora’s defense. “She’s got a point, Ilei. I know you want to help everyone, but the Khanal is a bigger threat than whatever’s taking their cows.”

“Alright.” she said finally, though she still didn’t sound pleased.

Things were a little tense during dinner, but the atmosphere eventually relaxed. The moon rose steadily over the horizon, and Ora prepared herself for another peaceful night.

Suddenly, Ilei was on her feet, creeping toward the fence. Ora stood up soon after, followed by Bahral.

“I think I heard something.” Ilei whispered, drawing her sword quietly. Ora could hear it too now, light footsteps, moving quickly through the sleeping cows, though it was too dark to make them out properly.

Ora held out her hand and muttered a soft “emra”. A beam of light flew from her hand and illuminated the thief, who was trying to coax a cow to its feet. They startled and looked up as soon as the light hit them, and took off running, but Bahral intercepted them before they even got over the fence.

He dragged the culprit over by the collar, his expression grim, and Ora got her first clear look at the thief’s face. 

It was Sofra.

***

They brought Sofra to the farmhouse, ignoring her protests, and woke her father. 

“We found your rustler.” Bahral said, tossing Sofra to the ground at her father’s feet.

“Sofra?!”

“Baba, I can explain!” she said quickly.

“You’d better.” he growled, and she shrank back.

“I heard you earlier, when they said they’d leave if nothing happened tonight! I waited to see if anything bothered the cows, but nothing came. So I figured if I took a few of the cows and hid them, they’d have to stay and catch whatever was actually doing it!”

Her father’s face was coldly furious. “Apologize for wasting their time, then go to bed. I’ll deal with you in the morning.”

“I’m sorry.” Sofra said softly, voice trembling. “I just wanted to help.” A few tears fell from her eyes, and she swiped viciously at them before running deeper into the house.

“She’s always been difficult, but I never would have expected this from her. I assure you, she will be punished for this.”

“That won’t be necessary.” Ora said quickly. “She did what she thought was right, she shouldn’t be punished for that.” She didn’t agree with the method, of course, but she couldn’t help but feel guilty, especially after having encouraged the group to leave.

Sofra’s father looked like he was about to speak when a piercing howl sounded from outside the house.

Baharal and Ilei exchanged a look.

“Direwolves?”

“Direwolves.”

“YES!” Ilei exclaimed, running out the door without a second thought, sword drawn. 

“She hadn’t had a good fight since the bandits, I think she’s antsy.” Bahral explained sheepishly, before running out after her, leaving Ora and Sofra’s father alone and confused. He coughed once, and Ora pointed awkwardly at the door.

“I’ll just…”

“Of course, of course.”

She slipped outside, and found Ilei and Bahral standing back to back in the field, surrounded by six huge wolves. They were each about as tall as Bahral, and they didn’t look happy.

“Do you need help?” she asked hesitantly. All six of the wolves turned their heads in her direction, and she felt her blood run cold. 

“Some light would be nice.” Ilei answered casually, and the wolves focused back on her and Bahral. 

Alright, Ora could do that. Some people might not have appreciated leaving their entire life behind only to serve as a glorified torch, but Ora had cast another light rune, and after seeing the direwolves’ teeth, she was perfectly happy to stay on the sidelines. 

Ora, despite knowing that Ilei and Bahral were knights, had never actually seen them fight before. They fought together naturally, which she supposed made sense, if they’d known each other as long as they said. 

Ilei struck first, slashing at the flank of the wolf nearest her. Her blade made contact, but it seemed to anger the beast more than anything. It leapt at her, but she rolled out of the way at the last second, and the beast was met with Bahral’s axe. The rest of the fight went in much the same way, with one of them distracting and the other springing up and taking advantage. Within five minutes, there were six dead wolves on the ground. Ilei took a step towards Bahral to clap him on the back, but winced and brought the hand to her torso instead. Ora sighed and marched over to the pair of knights, extinguishing the light rune on her way.

“Okay, I think Ora can take it from here, I’ll go explain what happened.” Bahral said, making a hasty retreat back to the farmhouse. 

“I told you, nothing too intense until your ribs are healed!” she scolded, draping Ilei’s arm over her shoulder and starting to walk her back to their camp. 

“In my defense, by our standards, that was fairly low-intensity.” Ilei tried to laugh, but Ora felt her wince again.

“Well, we’re working by _my_ standards now, and that means no fighting until you’re completely healed.” Ora grumbled, settling Ilei down on her sleeping mat.

Ilei, wisely, didn’t argue, or say much of anything, until Ora made to lift up her shirt.

“Woah there.” Ilei said nervously, grabbing Ora’s wrist to stop her from moving. 

“I need skin contact for the healing rune to work.” Ora huffed impatiently, and Ilei reluctantly released her so she could work. She went as fast as possible, since Ilei seemed uncomfortable, and replaced her shirt as soon as she was done.

“Better?”

“Fine.” Ilei replied, but it sounded strained. 

“You should get some sleep. We can leave in the morning. I’ll tell Bahral when he gets back.”

“Sounds good.” Ilei closed her eyes, and within seconds, seemed to have fallen asleep.

Satisfied with her work Ora went to her own mat and sat down to wait for Bahral.

He returned a few minutes later, holding a small sack.

“He was very thankful, and he promised not to be too hard on Sofra. He also gave us this.” He passed the sack to Ora, and she looked inside. It was full of a soft, light green powder.

“What is it?”

“Some kind of plant dust, apparently. It’s supposed to be good as a tea.” 

“We can try it tomorrow.” she said, passing it back for him to add to his infinite bag. “Ilei’s already asleep, I figure we can leave whenever she wakes up.”

Bahral looked over at Ilei and sighed. “She’s not good at knowing when to stop. Never has been, even if it’s what’s best for her.”

Ora hummed thoughtfully. “I think you both have a little bit of that, if you’ve been doing this for so long.”

He laughed quietly. “You’re probably right. And you’ve got some of that too, if you’re here. Maybe not quite as bad as Ilei, but…”

Ora looked over at Ilei, who’d curled in on herself during their conversation. “Well, if nothing else, she’s got us to help her.”


	5. The Necromancer

They set off at mid morning the next day, and despite Ilei constantly reassuring Ora that she was fine, really, Ora made sure to keep a close eye on her. 

They made good progress until lunch, when they took a quick break to eat.

“Catch!”

Ora looked up from the water she’d been boiling just in time to be smacked in the face by the pouch Sofra’s father had given them.

She picked it up from the ground and glared at Bahral, who looked gloriously unashamed.

After adding a bit of the powder to each of their cups, she passed them to the knights and took a sip. She instantly regretted it, and ended up spitting it out.

“That’s foul!”

She poured the rest into a nearby plant and started making herself some proper tea, too engrossed in her work to notice the knights looking at her with matching suppressed grins until she was nearly finished.

“...What.”

“Foul.” Ilei said, in a terrible imitation of Ora’s voice, while Bahral dissolved into silent hysterics beside her.

“It is!” Ora exclaimed defensively. “Try it!”

Ilei’s face was twitching with her effort to keep her composure. “I don’t even care what the tea tastes like, that was amazing.”

“What? Foul?”

Bahral’s laughter was no longer silent, and Ilei’s valiant efforts to control herself were finally defeated.

Ora glared at both of them. “Is this about my accent?” Ora’s village might have been in a no man’s land, but she’d grown up near Tuldor, and she spoke like it.

Bahral nodded vehemently. There were tears in his eyes.

“You… You’re both… Ugh!” Ora turned away, muttering something about poisoning them at their next meal, which only seemed to encourage them.

“It’s like travelling with _children _.” She hissed, packing everything that needed to be put away into Bahral’s bag and throwing it at his feet. He’d regained some control of himself by now, and apologized.__

__“You’d better be sorry.” she muttered darkly, and to their credit, both knights managed to hold it together and get to their feet._ _

__They walked on for a while longer, and Ora lost track of time, taking in little except the seemingly endless trees on either side of her and dirt road under her feet._ _

__“Ora!”_ _

__She was snapped out of her trance by Ilei’s voice and a hand waving in front of her face. Ilei was smiling._ _

__“If you were that insulted, you could’ve just said something. No need to ignore us.”_ _

__“Oh, I wasn’t, I just-” she started, but Ilei gently cut her off._ _

__“I’m joking, don’t worry. But we’re leaving the main road now, so you might want to stay a little more alert.”_ _

__Ora nodded, embarrassed, and followed Ilei into the trees._ _

__It was definitely a more active experience than just following a road. Roots and rocks to trip over, tiny branches getting caught in her hair and scratching her, and the constant sounds of things moving in the leaves above them certainly made it more exciting, though she couldn’t honestly say whether or not she prefered it to the monotony of the road._ _

__After a little bit of this, they emerged from the forest proper and started walking a small rocky path near the base of an impressive cliff. Here, Ora was once again in danger of drifting back into herself, but before she properly could, Bahral stopped. She nearly ran into his back, but avoided it at the last second._ _

__“Something’s off about this.” he said, pointing at an area of the cliff that looked, to Ora, completely identical to every other part._ _

__Ilei came up beside him and took a long look at the cliff face._ _

__“I don’t know what to tell you, Ral. It just looks like a cliff.”_ _

__Bahral gave her a look. “I _know_ that, it doesn’t look different, but there’s something magically off about it.”_ _

__Ilei looked over at Ora. “Do you sense anything?”_ _

__Ora closed her eyes and concentrated. She hadn’t noticed it before, but there was definitely a magical disturbance around the cliff. She opened her eyes and gave Bahral and impressed look._ _

__“You noticed that without trying?”_ _

__He grinned at her and tapped the side of his head. “Elf powers, man. Built in magic sensor.”_ _

__Ora felt her mouth twitch up in a small smile, and laid one hand on the cliff._ _

__“Hevi.”_ _

__The part that had been setting Bahral’s magic sensor off evaporated like mist, revealing a long tunnel carved into the stone._ _

__Bahral hit Ilei on the shoulder. “We should’ve gotten a witch forever ago!”_ _

__Ora shook her head fondly and made an “after you” gesture towards the cave. “Shall we?”_ _

__Ilei and Bahral drew their weapons and went in ahead of her, but gave the all-clear a few seconds later._ _

__Ora stepped inside. The tunnel took an abrupt turn after a few metres, and opened up into a wide cavern, unlike anything she’d ever seen before._ _

__The rock path she was on turned into a ramp that led down to the cave floor, which was set up like a communal living space, with a table and chairs in the center. There were other tunnels carved into the wall down there, which probably led to other caves. It seemed as though they’d found the main cave of a network, though it was impossible to tell how many branches there were._ _

__Ilei and Bahral were already on the ground floor, poking around the other tunnels._ _

__“Any idea what might live here?” she asked, hurrying down the ramp to join them._ _

__“My first guess would be dwarves, given how elaborate it is, but they wouldn’t conceal the entrance.” Ilei said, poking suspiciously at the table with her sword._ _

__“Maybe someone found it and took it over.” Bahral suggested. “It would be a pretty convenient place to live, all things considered.”_ _

__Ora wasn’t convinced. The concealing magic still seemed suspicious, even if the cave’s contents were innocuous enough. She decided to follow Ilei and Bahral’s lead and go poking around for a bit, though she started with the secondary tunnels._ _

__The first one she went to dead ended soon enough that she could see it without going inside, but the next one seemed to go on for longer, if the yawning darkness that greeted her when she looked inside was any indication. Ora shut her eyes and concentrated, trying to sense any more magic. What she found was different from the conceal spell she’d felt at the main entrance. It didn’t feel like rune magic at all. It felt older, more dangerous. But what really struck her was the _smell_. As a general rule, picking up on magic was a feeling, and nothing more. This had a distinct scent, like the forest floor after a rainstorm, or an old and mouldering tree trunk, dried and rotting flowers. It smelled like decay._ _

__Like death._ _

__Ora’s eyes snapped open, and she reeled away from the tunnel like it had burned her, turning around and running back to Bahral and Ilei._ _

__“We need to leave. Now.”_ _

__“What happened?” Bahral asked worriedly, looking up from what he was doing to see if Ora was hurt._ _

__“I don’t want to explain here, but we have to go. Please just trust me.” she pleaded, and something in her tone must have given away how desperate she was, because neither of the knights asked another question or tried to argue._ _

__“This is going to be very uncomfortable.” she warned, before grabbing them both by the wrist and muttering soft “tahira”._ _

__The cavern twisted out of existence around them, and the end of the cliff, which she’d seen before they’d gone through the tunnel, took its place. She released the two knights. Bahral stumbled a few steps away and threw up in some bushes, and Ilei looked tempted to do the same, but managed to refrain seemingly by sheer force of will. Ora could sympathize. The twist in her gut was still there, though it had been dulled by years of practice._ _

__“What was that for?” Ilei demanded as soon as she’d fully regained control of her internal organs._ _

__“We needed to get far away from that place.”_ _

__“Great,” Bahral said sarcastically from his position near the bushes, “mind telling us why? I think you owe my stomach and I an explanation.”_ _

__Ora winced sympathetically. “I _am_ sorry about that. I try not to use that rune on people when I can avoid it.” she paused, considering how to phrase her hunch without sounding insane, paranoid, or both. “That tunnel I checked out back there, its magic was different from the kind at the entrance. It… it felt like death magic.”_ _

__“What are you saying?” Ilei said, her body language suggesting she knew _exactly_ what Ora was insinuating, and she didn’t like it._ _

__“Look, I can’t be sure,” Ora backtracked a bit, less certain now that she wasn’t face to face with it, “no human alive can, gods know there hasn’t been one for, for four hundred _years_ -”_ _

__Bahral cut her off, incredulous:_ _

__“You think that whoever lived in there was a _necromancer_?”_ _

__Ora nodded._ _

__Bahral swore emphatically and started to pace, with one hand dug in his hair. Ilei, by contrast, stood stock-still, clearly still processing._ _

__“Like I said, I can’t really be sure, but it seems likely. And they aren’t alone. Someone cast the conceal rune on the entrance, and necromancers can’t use rune magic.”_ _

__Ilei sighed and raked a hand through her hair. “Okay. Let’s say it was a necromancer. We have no proof they’ve hurt anyone, so I vote we leave them alone and focus on finding the Khanal, who we know for a fact have been hurting people. If it becomes a problem, we’ll hear about it, and we can take care of it then.”_ _

__Ora had no wish to go anywhere near that kind of magic again, so she nodded agreement. Bahral looked uncertain for a second, but eventually assented._ _

__The sun was on its way down, and Ora would normally have suggested they start setting up camp, but she wanted as much distance between her and that cave as she could manage, and she doubted Ilei and Bahral would disagree with her. She also doubted they’d want to use her transport rune again, so instead she just started to walk, and they followed her, all normal conversation replaced by heavy, uneasy silence._ _

__***_ _

__Ixaya was smiling._ _

__On most people, that would be a good thing, but Ixaya was not most people, and over the past two years, that smile was something Katali had learned to be wary of._ _

__For now, she would accept it, because a happy Ixaya was better (for her, at any rate) than an angry one._ _

__Saresh was also happy, though he showed it differently from his sister, by pinching Katali’s cheek, too hard to be comfortable, to be _nice_ , and clapping her on the shoulder._ _

__“Your first full raid was a success! How do you feel?”_ _

__They were heading back to the cave, having successfully completed their mission for the day. It was the first one Katali had been put in charge of, meaning she got to choose what was done, and how._ _

__“Good.” she answered with a small smile. It was half true. It had felt good while she was doing it, a vindictive sort of pleasure. But it hadn’t lasted, and now she felt awful, guilt and regret roiling together in the pit of her stomach. But she was used to it by now. Two years was enough time to adjust to anything, if you tried._ _

__“I’m glad it went well. I thought you were being too ambitious.”_ _

__It was the first thing Ixaya had said since they left the village, and Katali couldn’t help the swell of pride the words brought her._ _

__Her chosen method had been elaborate, but it had worked, and worked well._ _

__***_ _

___The graveyard was next to the village. It was a small, well-organized thing, with the names of the deceased written on the stones above the graves._ _ _

___Katali stood in the center, arms outstretched, a hood covering her face. Slowly, blinding tendrils of glowing magic reached into the ground, and pulled the dead from their graves._ _ _

___Skeletons, more than twenty, rose, glowing from the inside with magic, and able to move once again. They looked at her expectantly._ _ _

___“Go on,” she told them. “You have families to visit, don’t you?”_ _ _

__***_ _

__The screams of horror from the terrified villagers were still echoing in her head hours later, but she didn’t dare say anything. This was what she was supposed to be, after all. The gods wouldn’t have given her this power if they didn’t want her to use it. Besides, Ixaya and Saresh never seemed to regret anything, even the village before this one that had been completely levelled after Ixaya was done with it._ _

__“What did you get?” She asked Saresh, in an effort to distract herself from thoughts of the raid. That, and she was hungry._ _

__“The basics, mostly, but I did get some pork. Oh, and these.” With a flourish and a cat-like grin, he produced a box and opened it. It was filled with balls of honey-dough, and Katali’s mouth started watering just seeing them._ _

__She realized she’s been unconsciously reaching for one when Saresh slammed the box shut and nearly took off one of her fingers._ _

__“Ah ah ah, only after we get back.”_ _

__She rolled her eyes at him, and he pinched her cheek again._ _

__They were nearly back anyway._ _

__When they stepped into the clearing in front of the cliff, Katali instantly knew something was wrong._ _

__This wasn’t by any skill of hers, but rather because Ixaya immediately tensed when she saw the cliff._ _

__Katali didn’t dare ask what was wrong, but Saresh, safe in the knowledge that he had younger-brother immunity, did._ _

__“You can see the entrance.”_ _

__Katali hadn’t seen before, but now that Ixaya pointed it out, it was glaringly obvious, even in the dwindling light._ _

__“Maybe you just forgot to cover it when we left?” Katali suggested weakly._ _

__Ixaya instantly turned on her, and Katali flinched involuntarily._ _

__“I didn’t _forget_ ,” she hissed, “someone found it and removed the rune.”_ _

__Katali shrank away and nodded._ _

__Ixaya’s smile was back, though it had turned cruel and mocking. “Good. Now, we’ll go check it out. You stay here and make sure they don’t come back.”_ _

__Katali nodded again. It was better not to talk while Ixaya was upset._ _

__Ixaya marched off toward the entrance, Saresh in tow. He’d drawn his knives, somehow. Katali still wasn’t sure where he kept them._ _

__She only exhaled once they were inside._ _

__To keep herself busy, she focused on the ground under her feet, checking for bodies, anything she could use if it became necessary._ _

__There was deer carcass fairly nearby, along with the usual litany of small rodents and birds. It would have to be enough._ _

__She was just about to risk Ixaya’s wrath and check on them when Saresh emerged, looking grim, with Ixaya shortly behind him, looking furious._ _

__“We can’t stay here. Someone definitely found it, and they used magic.”_ _

__Katali looked at him with wide eyes._ _

__“Do you think-”_ _

__“Yes.” Ixaya snapped impatiently. “They almost definitely know about you. So once they hear about the last attack, they’re going to put it together.”_ _

__Katali hugged her cloak more tightly around herself. Ixaya was going to be mad at her for _weeks_ , nevermind that none of this was actually her fault._ _

__“So are we going to keep a low profile then? Wait for it to blow over?”_ _

__Ixaya laughed sharply. “And let them get the better of us? Not likely. We’re expecting them now. We won’t stay here anymore, but if they just so happen to catch us during one of our raids, well…” she smiled coldly, “I have been looking forward to a proper fight.”_ _


	6. The Fairy

When Ora woke the next day, still at dawn, and still sore, but not nearly as much as she’d been the first day, she felt calmer. The village they were trying to get to was an hour away, and she was closer to getting some kind of answer about what had happened than ever. She even hummed to herself while she made breakfast, (supplies were dwindling, they’d need to restock in town) and smiled at a large black bird sitting in a nearby tree. It reminded her of Kiri.

She was just about to go wake the two knights up (more gently than Ilei normally did), but when she turned around, she found Ilei already sitting up, smiling softly at her, and it was so unexpected that Ora jumped in surprise.

“You should have said something!” She whispered, walking over to Bahral and prodding his shoulder with her foot. “Or at least helped cook.” 

Ilei offered up an embarrassed smile. “You looked so peaceful. I didn’t want to bother you.”

Ora wasn’t convinced, but she had other things to take care of. Bahral was unmoved by her efforts to wake him, so she went back to her cooking, filled a cup with water, and dumped it on his face. That did the trick.

He shot upright, coughing and spluttering.

“NINE HELLS!” he wiped the water from his eyes, and finally focused on Ora, who was still holding the cup. “That was _you_?”

“Well, was it better or worse than being kicked in the stomach?”

“Worse!”

“Then it was Ilei.”

“Hey!” came Ilei’s indignant cry of protest. “I haven’t even left my sleeping mat!”

“While your laziness _is_ commendable,” Ora teased, “we do need to get moving, so I suggest you give it a try.”

***

They _did_ make it to the village, but the locals were all unwilling to talk.

The khana rune in their town center had been covered by large stones, and was given a wide berth by every villager that passed through, and despite the combined charm and intimidation Bahral and Ilei brought to the table, and Ora’s earnest and gentle prying for answers, everyone they approached just told them not to get involved.

By noon, Ora was starting to lose hope. They hadn’t even managed to figure out what had been _done_ , much less anything about who had attacked the village.

She was sitting on the ground, sullenly working her way through an apple while she waited for Ilei and Bahral to finish buying supplies, when she felt a tap on her shoulder.

“Excuse me, miss?”

Ora turned to find a man about her age, looking somewhere between nervous and exasperated. 

She quickly swallowed her mouthful of apple, and said, as politely as possible: “Yes?”

“My grandmother wants to talk to you.”

“Oh, my friends should be back in a few minutes-”

He cut her off. “She asked for just you. Or, well. She asked for “the witchy one with the tattoos” so I assumed that was you.” He sounded annoyed, and Ora assumed fetching things for his grandmother was a regular occurence. “I’ll tell them where you went, she’s right in there.” He gestured over his shoulder at the largest building in the square, a tavern. “Tell ‘em you’re looking for Dwatha.”

Ora nodded and made her way quickly to the tavern. She wasn’t normally one to trust strange men telling her to go into an unfamiliar building, but she needed answers, and Ilei and Bahral would notice if she was gone too long. Hopefully.

She opened the door, and was immediately struck by how crowded it was. The village wasn’t that big, and while she was by no means an expert, she had always thought of taverns as places frequented at night, not at midday. 

It didn’t matter for long, because the whole place fell silent as soon as the door shut behind Ora. She was uncomfortably aware of all the eyes on her, and stumbled over her words a few times before finally saying: 

“I’m looking for Dwatha.”

“The old bat’s upstairs.” came a shout from the crowd, and it sparked laughter from a few people. By the time Ora had found the stairs, conversations had picked up again, and her heartrate had returned to normal.

The upper level of the tavern was far quieter, and much darker. It was formed of a single narrow hallway lined with doors, which she assumed were rooms for overnight patrons. A walk down the hallway confirmed that the doors were identical, and as they were all closed, she had no way of telling where the mysterious grandmother was hiding.

Luckily, she was saved the ordeal of having to knock on all of them by a voice calling:

“If it’s the witch, I’m in the last one.”

Ora opened the door in front of her, which was the furthest from the stairs, and found herself in a small, cozy room, with an elderly woman in a rocking chair sitting by the window, holding a folded paper in her hands.

Her back was ramrod straight and her eyes were sharp, despite the white hair pulled back in a low bun and the wrinkles around her eyes. She gave Ora a critical once-over, then gestured for her to come inside.

“Close the door. I can smell the mead if it’s left open too long.”

Ora did as she was told, then bowed respectfully to Dwatha.

A small smile spread across the old woman’s face.

“It’s quite rare to see someone with such good manners here. I’m impressed.”

Ora started to thank her, but Dwatha cut her off with a wave of her hand.

“Ah, but you aren’t here to hear about that. You’re looking for the ones who attacked the village, aren’t you?”

Ora nodded, and Dwatha sighed, leaning back slightly in her chair.

“They came at night. Destroyed all the food in the village, killed all the livestock, everything. We managed to bring more in from nearby villages, but we were lucky to get that much.” she paused, staring out the window with an intense judgement that nearly made Ora flinch, despite it not being directed at her. “People think talking about it will bring them back. I’m too old for superstition, and for sitting idle while worse happens elsewhere.”

She beckoned Ora forward, and handed her the paper she had been holding. Ora unfolded it, and Dwatha began speaking again.

“I was awake during the raid. I don’t know how many there were, because I only saw her.” she jabbed a finger at the paper, which upon further inspection seemed to be a wanted poster. The woman pictured had light hair and a sharply angled face, and even if it was just a picture, Ora felt afraid of looking her in the eye.

“Her name is Ixaya Mantevron. She and her brother were notorious in Kalassee. Thievery, assault, murder, anything that could be done, they did. Then, about two years ago, they just stopped. No one knew where they had gone, so the Lord of Kalassee sent soldiers out to larger villages to post these, so we’d be on the lookout.”

Ora scowled. Fat lot of good a warning did if there wasn’t anyone around to act on it.

“You said she had a brother?”

Dwatha nodded. “They worked together, but like I said, I didn’t see anyone else.”

“Thank you.” Ora said earnestly. “This is more than I could have hoped for.”

“It needed to be done. Now, I suggest you and your friends leave before the brutes downstairs decide they’re tired of questions. Good luck.”

Ora nodded quickly, bowed again, and rushed out the door, clutching the paper tightly.

Bahral and Ilei were waiting outside the tavern, looking impatient.

“Did you find anything?”

“Yes.”

Ora showed them the wanted poster, and gave a quick summary of everything Dwatha had told her.

“Well,” Ilei said, a mischievous grin on her face, “I guess we’re going to Kalassee.”

***

Once they were outside the village, Ilei and Bahral spent well over ten minutes arguing over which way Kalassee was, a debate that was finally settled by Ora casting a tracking rune and figuring out that they had, in fact, both been wrong.

This didn’t end up mattering, because they’d been walking in the _correct_ direction for maybe five minutes when they encountered their first problem. 

Said problem came in the form of a group of bandits beating what seemed to be a child, who was curled up in a ball on the ground with their arms covering their head. 

“Hey!” Ilei called, drawing the attention of the group of muggers. They saw her, her sword, and Bahral, decided that it was better to be somewhere that wasn’t there, and ran off. Ora rushed over to the prone figure on the ground and knelt beside them.

“Are you alright?”

They sat up, and Ora realized that they were not a child, but a fairy. She’d never met one before, but the bright white hair and gold eyes, combined with their short stature and general aura of inhuman superiority made it obvious. Which was strange, because fairies tended to be self-sufficient enough to not be bothered by forest brigands. 

“Peachy.” The fairy said sarcastically, rubbing gingerly at their jaw. 

“I can fix that up, if you’d like?” Ora offered hesitantly, but the fairy leveled her with a withering glare and she backed off.

The fairy rolled their shoulders, iridescent wings folding themselves off their back, and got unsteadily to their feet. Their tunic was torn, and they seemed to be favoring their left leg, but they were still glaring at the group, as though daring them to point it out.

“Well, now that I’ve been thoroughly humiliated, I’m off.” The fairy gave a half-hearted salute and took to the air disappearing into the trees before Ora had a chance to react.

“That was weird, right?” Ilei asked after a few seconds of silence.

Bahral nodded in agreement. “Fairies are magical powerhouses. Those robbers should have been turned into toadstools long before we got there.”

Ora bit her lip. While the fairy’s behaviour was certainly abnormal, fairies were weird to begin with, and based on their attitude, this one didn’t want a group of heroes poking around in their business.

“We need to get to Kalassee. We can’t afford to waste time trying to help someone who doesn’t want it to begin with.”

Ilei looked ready to argue, “defend-the-needy” mode clearly on high, but she couldn’t fight Ora’s logic, so she just sighed. “Alright.”

***

It had been less than a day before they ran into the fairy again, this time clapped in stocks in the square of the village they’d stopped to confirm their directions in, glaring ferociously at anyone who dared look at them. 

“Why aren’t they doing anything?” Bahral hissed. “ _I_ could get out of those.”

Ora felt that pointing out that he was approximately three times the fairy’s size wasn’t going to be appreciated, as that was quite clearly not the point he was trying to make, but it didn’t mean she didn’t want to.

“Not our problem, right?” Ora said firmly, and steered them out of the village, since they’d gotten their directions, and the fairy _did not want their help_.

***

Bahral had found them a particularly nice place to set up camp that night, in a clearing with decent surrounding tree cover and a small stream. It was peaceful, quiet, almost idyllic, right up until they’d finished supper, and heard yelling nearby.

“All right, you flame-faced nakara! Let’s do this!”

The shout was followed by a roar, and a jet of fire illuminating the darkness to their left. 

“Is it our problem now?” Ilei asked innocently.

Ora didn’t dignify that with an answer, jumping to her feet and running in the direction of the fight with Ilei and Bahral following close behind her.

It was the fairy again. They were darting around the head of a very large, very pissed-off dragon, which was alternately swiping at them and trying to blowtorch them, which was causing more ill effects to the surrounding trees than the fairy, who seemed to be having the time of their life. That is, until a well-timed strike from the dragon’s tail hit home and sent them flying backwards into a tree with a sickening _crunch_. 

Ora waited for them to move, but they were definitely unconscious. And Ilei must have been starting to rub off on her, because despite the fairy having done seemingly nothing except cause trouble since their first meeting, she didn’t want them to be eaten by a dragon.

“I’ll go take care of them, you two handle the dragon!”

Bahral took to the task with gusto, whooping out a battle cry and charging the beast, which was suddenly much more interested in him than the comatose fairy. Ilei went in after him, yelling at a volume rivalling Bahral’s, causing the dragon additional confusion.

Ora made her way to the fairy, who was lying unconscious on the grass. She hooked her hands under their armpits and started dragging them out of the line of the way of the fight, the whole affair giving her flashbacks to when she’d first rescued Ilei. 

“Why,” she grunted, “does everyone in this country insist on nearly getting themselves killed right before I meet them?”

***

Ilei had almost forgotten how fun fighting with Bahral was. Years of friendship had given them the kind of trust in each other that was almost impossible to find, and they barely had to talk to understand what the other wanted to do anymore.

Case in point, as soon as she yelled out a “Ral!”, he dropped to the ground in a crouch, she ran at him, and he stood up as soon as she stepped on his back, the force of their combined momentum sending her flying into the air, arcing perfectly and landing on the dragon’s back. 

Nice.

The sudden jolt of the landing caused a sharp pain in her ribs, but it passed almost as soon as it arrived, so she ignored it, instead focusing her efforts on trying to find a soft spot in the dragon’s armor from this angle, while Bahral continued to try and get at its underside.

***

Ora managed to get the fairy out of immediate danger, but they were still unconscious. Not for long. Fairies were sturdier than humans, and she was determined to get them conscious _fast_. 

“Aulo.” The “heal” rune on Ora’s right hand started to glow, and the fairy jolted awake with a gasp. They took in their surroundings, saw Ora looking distinctly unimpressed, and tried to fly away, but Ora had prepared for this, and had a firm grip on their arm. 

“Let me go!” they fought against her, trying to pull away, but Ora held firm. She had, quite frankly, had enough of their nonsense.

“What, so you can go and annoy another _dragon_? What were you thinking?!”

The fairy didn’t answer, refusing to meet Ora’s eyes, expression closed. 

***

Ilei hadn’t managed to hit anything consequential yet, but the dragon was starting to get annoyed at her, reaching over its shoulder and snapping at her. 

“Bahral!” she yelled, not panicking yet, but getting there.

“On it!” Bahral responded, lobbing his axe through the air at the dragon. It smacked it, handle first, clean between the eyes. It stopped trying to bite at Ilei and fixed its eyes on a now weaponless Bahral.

“Why did you do that!?”

“I have a plan!”

“Really?” Ilei asked, unconvinced. Bahral, son of Yri, did not _plan_. He charged unthinkingly and hoped for the best. She knew him well enough to be certain of that. To be fair, it usually worked, but still.

“No, but I think best under pressure!”  
***

“I’m sure you have a reason for whatever you’re doing, but if you’re getting innocents involved, it’s a problem.”

The fairy snorted. “I didn’t ask you to get involved.”

Ora glared at them. “You went down. The dragon was already angry. Angry dragons don’t just _stop_. It would have burned this entire area to the ground, and it would have been on your head!” she hadn’t realized she’d raised her voice, but the fairy’s flinch gave it away.

“I lost my powers.” they said quietly, resolutely staring at the ground. They lifted the wrist that Ora wasn’t holding, which had a single silver dot on it. Mezye, the rune for stop. Or end. She had her own somewhere on her arm, but she’d put it there herself, and she doubted they meant the same thing.

“You got them stripped? What did you _do_?”

“It was spectacular, I assure you.” The fairy said sarcastically. “But I can’t tell you. I may be banished, but I still need to obey the laws of the High Fae, for SOME REASON!” they addressed the last part, in a yell, to the sky.

Ora assumed they were trying to get the message to whoever had banished them.

“Look, I’m sorry you were banished, but that still doesn’t explain why you tried to fight a dragon.”

The fairy smiled bitterly. “I wanted to prove that I could still beat something without my magic. Worked out well, huh?”

***

“I’m not making a dent!” Ilei called to Bahral, who was busily rolling out of the way of the rampaging dragon, trying and failing to get to his axe. 

“I hadn’t noticed!”

Ilei ignored the sarcasm on the principle that this was entirely the fairy’s fault. “How’s that idea coming along?”

“You’re not going to like it!” 

Ilei hit the dragon with the flat of her blade to distract it from Bahral. It worked, and she was nearly charbroiled by the jet of flame it sent her way.

“I’m open to suggestions!” 

“I need you to wrestle it!”

“Are you insane?” Sure, she was strong, but a dragon was 20 000 pounds of muscle, fire, and rage. She didn’t like her odds. 

“Just pass me your sword and get it to lift its head!”

Ilei hesitated for a second, then threw the sword to Bahral, who caught it with practiced ease. She could figure this out. Probably.

“If this gets us killed, I get to kick you in the nuts in the afterlife!”

His response was lost when the dragon let out an outraged roar. 

“Here goes nothing.” Ilei muttered to herself, before running up the dragon’s spine toward its head. 

It was not pleased with this development. 

It did everything in its power to shake her off, but she managed to fight her way up to its skull and get a solid grip on one of its horns. If she used the leverage from pushing down on its horn to get it to bare its throat, and Bahral managed to get a solid hit… It would work, but they needed to be fast. 

She spotted Bahral on the ground in front of the dragon, ready. She braced her feet and started to pull, forcing the dragon’s head back as she put more pressure on the horn. Her muscles were shaking, and the dragon was thrashing around so much that she doubted that she’d be able to hold on for very long. 

Suddenly, there was a piercing shriek, so loud it was practically deafening, and the dragon stopped fighting and dropped to the ground, dead. Ilei slid down its snout and waited patiently for Bahral to extract himself from under the carcass. Then she kicked him in the shin.

“Ow!” He sounded more offended than genuinely hurt, so she snatched her sword (which was now covered in dragon slime, great) back from him, and kicked him again.

“Go get your axe.”

***

Ilei and Bahral arrived shortly after the dragon’s dying scream, covered in scorch marks and green blood, respectively.

They didn’t look happy.

“Start talking.” Bahral growled at the fairy.

“They already did.” Ora said quickly, and she relayed the fairy’s story as quickly as she could to the two furious knights.

“So.” Ilei said when she finished, “we nearly got killed because of a stupid fae _power-trip_?!”

The fairy didn’t even have the decency to look embarrassed. “I didn’t ask you to get involved.”

“Believe me, I would love to have let you get eaten-”

“Bahral, please. And you,” Ora continued, turning her attention back to the fairy, “we’ve been over the fact that your actions have consequences for people other than you, haven’t we?”

That seemed to do something, as the fairy now looked uncomfortable, rather than haughty. 

“What you did was idiotic and irresponsible, and we have enough on our plates without worrying about it happening again, so… Mehrei.” The “connect” rune on Ora’s arm glowed gold, the warmth of it seeping out through her palm onto the fairy’s wrist, which she released as soon as the spell was finished.   
The rune was now branded on the fairy’s skin where Ora’s palm had been, stark white against their dark skin.

They stared at it for a few seconds, then looked up at Ora. 

“You sly nakara.” They said slowly, sounding slightly awed. “A magic leash? Seriously?!”

Ora shrugged. “It’s efficient.”

The fairy seemed to be barely holding back seething fury. “What’s your plan? Drag me around like a prize and show everyone the fairy you captured?”

“No.” Ora stated calmly. “I have the same goal as you: to prove you’re worth something without your powers.”

The fairy gave her an incredulous look. “Humans are truly mystifying.”

“Well, lucky for you, you get to study us for a good long while. I’m going to go clean my sword.” Ilei walked off toward the stream, and Bahral looked like he was going to follow her, but stopped right before he did.

“We never did learn your name, oh mighty and annoying one.”

The fairy gave him a particularly venomous look. “It’s Eju. Now are any of you going to tell me yours?”

Ora introduced each of them quickly, before things escalated, and Bahral went to join Ilei without further incident.

“Are you hungry?”

“No.”

They sat in awkward silence for a while longer, until Ilei and Bahral returned, in fact, before Eju spoke again.

“You didn’t put up much of a fight about keeping me.” they said, arching a suspicious eyebrow at Ilei and Bahral. “What kind of dirt does she have on you?”

Ilei smirked at them. “No dirt. We just trust her judgement.”

“Besides,” Bahral added with a grin, shifting his axe from one shoulder to the other, “this thing works better close range.”

Ora gave him a warning look, but Eju just cracked a small smile.

“You’re pretty witty, for an elf.”

Bahral reached over and clapped them heartily on the back, almost knocking them forward into the fire. Ora was only partially sure it was an accident. “And you’ve got a smart mouth for a magicless fairy.”

Eju’s scowl returned, causing both Ilei and Bahral to start cackling loudly.

 _This may have been a mistake_.


	7. Kalassee

The night and the next morning were uneventful, all things considered.

Eju complained about everything with a passion that Ora didn’t think was possible, but they didn’t try to do anything about it, until, around mid morning, they suddenly took to the air and flew like mad in the opposite direction from where they were headed.

Ora sighed deeply and reached toward them with her hand. A glowing rope materialized from the mehrei rune on her arm, connected to the twin mark on Eju’s wrist. Ora wrapped her hand around it and gave a solid yank, and the fairy came flying back, yelling the whole way.

Eju was dropped unceremoniously at her feet, swearing like their life depended on it.

“Did you really think that would work?” Ora asked, more amused than annoyed. She’d anticipated this kind of behaviour, it’s why she’d cast the tethering spell to begin with.

“Worth a shot.” Eju grumbled, struggling to their feet. Their head only came up to Ora’s chin, which was somewhat disconcerting, given the size of their personality. “Gods, I didn’t think the leash would be that literal.”

Ora shrugged. “It doesn’t have to be. But that was fun.”

“It was fun.” Eju said in a mocking imitation of her voice, before stalking off, in the right direction, grumbling about “stupid arrogant humans”.

Bahral came up behind Ora and swung an arm over her shoulders. He was laughing.

“I didn’t think you had it in you, but that was amazing.”

Ora ducked her head in embarrassment. She’d been being careful about showing the extent of her powers, for a variety of complex reasons, and she was frankly overjoyed that Eju hadn’t said anything about her tattoos yet.

“Do you think you could do it again?” Ilei asked from her other side, quietly, so Eju couldn’t hear her.

“No! That would be cruel.”

“They nearly got me flambéed by a dragon, I think I deserve to see them get yanked around a bit.”

Ora gave her a look, and Ilei raised her hands in surrender. 

“Fine, fine. But if they happen to get in trouble in Kalassee, I’m not bailing them out again.”

In front of them, Eju visibly perked up, and flew over, looking excited for the first time since they’d been forced to join the group.

“Did you say Kalassee? We’re going to Kalassee?!”

Ora was too blindsided by the sudden change of attitude to say anything, but Bahral saved her from having to with a “yes”.

Eju whooped in excitement. 

“Oh thank the gods. I thought I was going to be stuck in the forest with you losers forever.”

Ora glared at them, and based on their flinch back, Ilei and Bahral were doing the same.

“I'm not taking that back. You're all losers. Have any of you even been in a city before?”

Ora had not, in fact, been to a city before. In her defence, she hadn't really had time (or reason) in her years as a healer, and before that… well, she wouldn't have been able to then either.

However, she expected different answers from the two heroes. Instead, she saw Bahral shuffling his feet and avoiding Eju's gaze, and Ilei just said:

“Nope!”

Eju's eye twitched. 

“ _None_ of you have been to a city before?”

“Well,” Bahral said sheepishly, “we've been _to_ a city before. We escort refugee groups all the time, we've just never been inside.”

This didn't seem to soothe Eju's nerves at all. They ran their hand over their face and sighed deeply.

“Okay, okay. Fine. What do you want to do there?”

Ora took out the wanted poster and handed it to them. “We're looking for her.”

Eju let out a sound similar to that of a cat being stepped on, and sank to the ground.

“You’ve never been to a city before, and you're looking for IXAYA?!” They exclaimed, voice cracking on the last word. “You're all insane.” They whispered, disbelieving.

“Yep!” Ilei chirped, grabbing a despondent Eju by the shoulder and dragging them along behind her. “This is going to be fun!”

***

The walls of Kalassee were everything Ora had expected. Tall, intimidating, and heavily guarded. Luckily, one of said guards recognized Ilei and Bahral and let them inside.

Eju had perked up significantly en route, probably because they were excited to see the city, but Ora suspected at least part of it was at the prospect of seeing her and the heroes get beat up.

As soon as the gates were shut behind them, Eju jumped in front of the group and blocked them from moving any further. 

“So, I have some ground rules.”

Bahral laughed heartily. “What makes you think you get to establish rules?”

“The fact that I know what I'm doing, and how to get you out of here alive.”

Bahral seemed ready to argue the point further, so Ora, perhaps unsubtly, stepped between them. 

“Right, Eju, why don't you tell us your rules and if they're reasonable, we'll follow them.”

“Fine.” Bahral and Eju said at the same time, in the same tone of reluctant participation. They glared at each other, and Ora sighed.

“At least _try_ to get along?”

Neither of them said anything that time, but they stopped trying to telepathically murder each other, so Ora counted it as a win. 

“Go ahead, Eju.”

Eju rubbed their hands together. “Well, you're going to have to go to some pretty unsavory places if you want to find anyone willing to talk about Ixaya. And honestly, your look will get you picked out as heroes instantly.”

Ilei groaned. “You're not saying-”

“Oh yeah,” Eju cut her off with an evil grin, “we're doing makeovers.”

***

Eju's outfit was unchanged, because “they already know me, and I need people to recognize me!” 

Ora, on the other hand, had never been more uncomfortable in her life. 

She was wearing a dark cloak, some shapeless black dress _thing_ that she was hating more and more with each passing second, and Eju had ambushed her with some kind of eye makeup and refused to take no for an answer. As if that hadn't been bad enough, they'd also done something to her hair that made it look as though there was something living in it.

“Okay, you're done.” Eju proclaimed, turning her to face Bahral and Ilei, who at least still looked somewhat like themselves, albeit wearing significantly more black.

“Why do they get to wear normal clothing?!” Ora demanded, gesturing wildly at herself. “I look like I've been living in a cave eating live rats!”

“That's the point.” Eju said patiently. “Ilei and the elf are already intimidating, they just needed to look mean. You, on the other hand…” they trailed off and gestured at her, “are not. So I had to take some creative liberties.”

Ora huffed, and Ilei came over to pat her reassuringly on the shoulder. 

“I think you're plenty scary. Just keep up the resting murder face, and you'll be fine.” 

Ora rolled her eyes at her, but felt a smile tugging at her lips anyway.

Eju cleared their throat loudly and dramatically. “Well, if you two are done, we've got a tavern to crash.” they said, jerking their thumb towards the door of the room they'd rented for the night.

Ilei jerked away from Ora abruptly, like she’d been shocked.

“Alright, lead on.”

That had been strange, but Ora didn’t have time to ask her about it, and followed Eju out into the street.

Eju talked as they walked, giving Ora and the knights a run-down of the plan.

“So, the place we’re checking out is called the Bloody Boar. It’s pretty notorious. I’m a regular.” They paused to smirk wickedly. “Anyway, the kind of people who hang out there are the kind who are most likely to know about Ixaya, but they’re also smart enough not to talk about her.”

“Great. How does this help us?” Bahral cut in, annoyed.

“I wasn’t finished. The patrons won’t talk about her, but the _owner_ will. _And_ …” they trailed off for dramatic effect, “he owes me a favour.”

“Okay, so we just go in and talk to the owner?” 

“Nope!” Eju said cheerfully, clearly having the time of their life turning in conversational circles just to mess with them. “He doesn’t like interacting with his customers, so he only comes out when something goes wrong.” 

“So what are we going to do, then?” Ora asked exasperatedly. 

Eju grinned. “Thank you for asking.” They stopped in front of a grimy building with what seemed to be a real boar’s head impaled on the door. “Witchy, you stick with me. You two,” they pointed at Bahral and Ilei, “Go in, find the nastiest looking person, and pick a fight.” 

Ilei and Bahral gave Eju matching looks of disdain. 

“If any of you have a better plan, I’m open to suggestions.” They said in a smug way that indicated that they knew no one had a better plan. 

Bahral scowled and grabbed Eju by the collar. “If I die in there, my last act will be taking you down with me.” 

Eju looked rightfully terrified, but made an effort to laugh it off. “Nice try, but I’m immortal, remember?” 

“Immortal doesn't mean invulnerable.” Bahral muttered darkly. 

“Aaaaand that’s our cue.” Ilei said quickly, grabbing the back of his tunic and kicking the door open. 

Unlike the other tavern Ora had been to, this one barely seemed to register their entrance. It was significantly grimmer than Dwatha’s had been, but she supposed that was to be expected. The various patrons still seemed to be mostly human, although Ora did see the telltale flutter of fairy wings, and someone in the back seemed to have horns. The bartender was also not human, the light smattering of scales near her eyes and the single snake trunk in the place where her legs should be designating her as a naga. 

“Eju? Is that you?” She asked when she noticed the fairy, exposing her forked tongue and some sharp looking fangs. 

“Irassa? I thought the guard finally got you!” Eju exclaimed with a grin, heading over to the bar and not-so-subtly grabbing Ora’s wrist to pull her along with them. 

The bartender -Irassa, apparently- laughed, a rough, hissing sound that made the hair on Ora’s neck stand up. 

“And you really thought they’d keep me for long? I thought you knew me better than that.” 

Eju shrugged, an easy grin still plastered on their face. “I won’t be underestimating you again.” 

Irassa mirrored the grin, and the second view of her fangs was really something Ora could have lived without. “You’d better not. Who’s your friend?” 

It took Ora a second to realize that that meant her, and, figuring that Eju was better equipped to come up with a believable lie than her, opted to continue to glare sullenly rather than say anything. 

“A witch. Found her out in the woods, figured she could make better use of her talents in the city.” 

“Really?” Irassa said smoothly, leaning into Ora’s face. “And what might those be?” 

Without breaking eye contact, Ora pointed at one of the bottles behind the bar, and muttered a harsh “tahira”. The bottle flew into her hand, and she took a long swig. It was disgusting, and made her throat feel like it was being attacked by thousands of tiny dragons, but she made sure not to let it show, slamming it down on the bartop when she felt she’d gone long enough. 

Eju seemed to be somewhat shocked by her choice of actions, and also trying very hard not to laugh. “...Yes, that. Among other things.” 

Irassa seemed to be a mixture of impressed and horrified. “Well, welcome to Kalassee.” 

Ora glared at her, and Irassa turned away and started talking to Eju again. Ora tuned out the conversation and looked around for Bahral and Ilei. They were fairly nearby, talking to a group composed of an orc, a human, and a dwarf. She was considering disobeying Eju and going over to encourage them to pick a fight so they could _leave_ , but before she had the chance, someone slid into the seat next to hers. It was the person with horns she’d noticed earlier, who seemed to be, upon closer inspection, a faun. 

“I saw your trick with the bottle,” he smirked, leering at Ora in a way that made her skin crawl, “if you want to get a drink the more traditional way, I’m happy to buy for you.” 

Ora tried her previous trick of glaring murderously in hopes that he would go away, but he just laughed. 

“Alright, not a talker, I get it. Hey, Irassa!” 

Irassa looked up from her conversation with Eju. “Whaddya want, goat boy?” 

“Whatever she had earlier. Bring the bottle.” 

Ora kept her eyes fixed on the bar, trying to figure out if her tried and true method of setting this guy on fire and making a break for it would work, but she didn’t like the odds. 

She looked up at the sound of the bottle sliding across the counter, just in time to see Ilei, wearing her most casually murderous grin, tap the faun on the shoulder. 

He turned to face her with an aggravated “What?” 

“You really should learn to take a hint.” she suggested helpfully. Then she punched him in the nose. 

Ora heard the crunch from where she was sitting, and winced sympathetically despite herself. 

The faun wiped under his nose, and when his hand came away bloody, he called Ilei some choice names and got to his feet, well, hooves, and got in a swing of his own. Ilei didn’t even flinch, instead grabbing his wrist and swinging him over her shoulder and into one of the other patrons. Bahral, who was still a little ways away, seemed to get the hint, and proceeded to grab the two people closest to him and knock their heads together. From there, everything devolved into chaos remarkably quickly. 

Eju grabbed Ora’s wrist again and dragged her into a deserted corner of the bar, away from the fight. 

“Now might be a good time for your shield rune.” 

As if on cue, a bottle came sailing through the air and smashed into the wall just above their heads, shattering on impact. 

“Good plan.” 

She’d never cast a shield on more than one person before, but it was just a matter of expanding it a little. It probably helped that Eju was tiny. 

“I didn’t want to ask in front of the other two,” Eju started after a few tense moments of silence, “but I am curious about the tattoos.” 

Ora’s blood froze. She’d been dreading this. Bahral and Ilei’s relative ignorance of magic had kept her safe so far, but with Eju around, and far better informed, she’d known it was just a matter of time before they asked about it. 

“Can this wait until we aren’t in mortal danger?” Ora asked, a little desperately. 

“Aren’t you guys always in mortal danger? It seems like your thing.” 

“Eju _please_.” The desperation in her voice must have been clear because Eju was quiet for a few seconds longer before saying, softly; 

“Later, then.” 

Ora sighed in relief, and watched the fight in silence for a few more seconds. Against all reason, Ilei and Bahral seemed to be winning, but Ora barely had time to be impressed before a booming “STOP!” resonated through the room. To her shock, the fighting halted immediately, and everyone turned to face the source of the voice. Eju’s grip on her wrist tightened. 

“Drop the shield.” 

Ora did as she was told, despite her unease. True, she’d never been in a tavern brawl before, but she really didn’t think that they should be that easy to stop, no matter how respected you were. 

“Who’s responsible for this?” the voice asked, and Eju got to their feet, pulling Ora up behind them. 

“That would be me.” They called cheerfully. “Hey Arwyn!” 

“Ah.” the voice, whose source Ora still couldn’t locate, replied, sounding vaguely displeased. “Hello Eju.” 

“Can I talk to you?” 

The voice sighed profoundly. “I suppose. Go downstairs.” 

“Perfect. Ilei, Bahral! Come on!” 

Ilei dropped the dwarf she’d been throttling, Bahral pulled his axe out of the wall, and they both jogged over to Ora and Eju. 

“Are you okay?” Ilei asked softly as they followed Eju behind the bar and through a trap door into the cellar. 

It was a strange question, since Ilei had been the only one actually involved in the fight, but she sounded genuinely concerned, so Ora reassured her quickly that she was. Ilei seemed satisfied with the answer, and went to lean intimidatingly against the back wall with Bahral while they waited for the as yet elusive Arwyn.  
They didn’t have to wait long, as just as Ora was about to ask Eju where his supposed contact was, an unnaturally pretty man walked through a door Ora hadn’t noticed, and gave Eju the most exasperated and exhausted look she’d ever seen a person make. 

“Gods Ar, that happy to see me?” 

“What do you _want_?” he asked, massaging his temples and dropping onto one of the many barrels strewn across the cellar floor. 

“Anything you know about Ixaya.” 

That made him snap to attention. 

“Ixaya? Eju, whatever you’re planning with her, don’t bother. It’s not worth it.” 

“Believe me, I agree.” Eju gestured at the others with a sigh. “But they want to find her, so here we are." 

Arwyn looked at them suspiciously. “Since when do you do anything for anyone else?” 

“Can’t I just do something out of the goodness of my heart?” 

“You turned Tsyk into worm because she “looked at you funny”. Forgive me for doubting you.” 

Ora, Bahral and Ilei all gave Eju disapproving looks. 

“I turned her back!” 

Ora sighed and revealed the glowing tether binding her and the fairy together. 

“This is why they’re helping us. Now, as lovely as your establishment is, I’d like to leave as soon as possible, so could you _please_ tell us about Ixaya so we can get out of your hair?" 

Arwyn stared at the tether, slack-jawed, eventually looking up at Ora with an awed expression. 

“You did this?” 

“Yes?” Ora said, puzzled. It wasn’t exactly a difficult spell. 

“And they _let_ you?” Arwyn continued, still incredulous. 

“Well they whined the whole time, but they couldn’t exactly do much.” Ilei chimed in from her place on the wall. 

Arwyn looked from Ilei back to Ora, as though trying to gauge whether or not they were lying, before finally settling back on Eju. 

“Did you get your magic stripped?” 

There was something different about his tone, something that compelled Ora to tell the truth, even though he wasn’t addressing her. 

“Yes.” Eju spat bitterly, eyes locked on the ground in shame. Ora felt bad for exposing them against their will, and made the tether invisible again, a small act of mercy, but all she could do. 

Arwyn gave a long whistle, impressed. “Well, I knew it was only a matter of time, but I thought you’d at least last ‘till your eight hundredth.” 

“Will you help us or not?” Eju snapped, and Arwyn raised his hands in surrender. 

“Yeah, I’ll help, but only because I owe you. I don’t want you in here again after this, got it?” 

Eju bit their lip and nodded. “Get on with it, then.” 

“I only had her in here once, and she made an even bigger mess than you lot. She’s a witch, but she has a more traditional magic style than that one.” he jutted his chin toward Ora, and she tensed, hoping against hope that Ilei and Bahral hadn’t been paying attention. “She and her brother were a team. Saresh, I think his name was. He didn’t have magic, as far as I could tell, but he did enough damage without it. She’s volatile as anything, and even after I banned them, I’d hear stories from customers, about such-and-such turning up dead after making her angry.” He paused, thinking. “I don’t ban people unless I really have to, if that gives you any idea how bad she is. From what I heard, they picked up a new member a few years back. No one had seen her before, and I don’t know anything more about her, but they all left the city and no one’s heard anything since.” 

A lot of that had been a retread of what Dwatha had told her, but at least they knew more about what their numbers were like, and what abilities the group had, minus the mysterious third member. 

Ora thanked Arwyn and got to her feet to leave, and the others followed suit. Arwyn opened the door he’d come through for them, which led into a dark alley. Ora was the last one out, and before she could leave fully, Arwyn stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. 

“I know it’s not my place, but if I were you, I wouldn’t try and work with her. I could barely handle her, and people tend to listen to me.” 

Ora smiled ruefully. “That’s the most modest description of siren magic I’ve ever heard.” 

Arwyn looked marginally impressed at having been identified. Ora wasn’t surprised. Not everyone had the list of magic using humanoids drilled into their brains from the moment they could talk. 

“That may be, but she’s tough, and she’s ruthless. If you can avoid working with her, do it.” 

“We’re not planning on working with her. She destroyed my village. We’re planning on defeating her.” 

Arwyn laughed sharply, like it had been surprised out of him. “Wow. Eju’s working with heroes now. That’s new.” He shook his head, still laughing softly. “I’m not a fan of heroes, but when it comes to Ixaya…” he trailed off, and when he spoke again, it was with a slight undertone of magic. “You’d better win.” 

Ora was pretty certain that wasn’t something he could control, magic or no, but she nodded anyway. 

“We intend to.” 

Arwyn gave her one last appraising look and shut the door, leaving Ora to jog down the alley after her friends, finding herself wondering, for the first time since she’d left her village, whether this had been the right choice after all. 


	8. The Kahnal

“That was my favourite bar! I’ve been going there since Arwyn’s _grandfather_ founded the damn place, and he’s banning me? I hope you’re grateful.”

Ora sighed. Eju had been going on like this since they’d left the tavern, and despite their rented room being a fairly short walk away, she wasn’t in the mood to deal with their attitude for _any length_ of time. 

“Once again, yes, we’re very thankful for your help, but given that the fight was your idea-”

“And it doesn’t seem like you were a model patron before, either,” Ilei added under her breath.

“I really don’t think you can blame us for your being banned,” Ora finished, opening the door to the building they’d found housing in and waving everyone inside.

Eju glared at them. “Alright, fine. Will you at least let me go now?” they asked, lifting their wrist and waving it in Ora’s face.

“No.”

“Why not!?”

Ora took a few moments before answering, pulling off her boots and cloak and sitting down on one of the beds. 

“Because nothing about that situation convinced me that you won’t be a danger to yourself or others if I do.”

Eju growled in frustration. “What can I even do? I have no powers, everyone I know only respected me _because_ of those powers, and I can’t even go back home because I’ve been banished!”

“You could tell Ixaya we know about her,” Ilei pointed out, and Ora nodded.

“Why would I do that?”

“Why wouldn’t you?” Bahral countered. “You knew your way around the Kalassee crime scene pretty well, wouldn’t you be more likely to side with one of them than with a group of heroes?”

That shut Eju up. “I’m going to bed,” they said after a few seconds pause, and flopped down on the nearest bed with the blanket pulled over their head.

Ora ran a hand over her face and sighed.

“We’ll figure out what to do in the morning, alright? I think we all need some rest.” Bahral and Ilei nodded agreement, and went off to their own beds, a heavy, frustrated silence hanging over the room.

***

Ora woke up as early as usual after a night of uneasy rest and busied herself with breakfast, taking comfort in the routine. 

“Are you going to tell me now?”

The sound of Eju’s voice made her jump, nearly dropping the pot she was holding.

“I figured you’d be the type to sleep in,” Ora said casually, ignoring the question and getting back to work.

“Technically, I don’t need to sleep at all. Immortality has some fun benefits. Now, tell me about the tattoos.”

The persistence wasn’t exactly surprising, but it was frustrating. Maybe it had been naive of Ora to assume she could keep the secret forever, but she’d at least hoped that if anyone found it strange, they’d be too polite (or nervous) to bring it up.

“It’s not _that_ rare. I just… learned,” she said vaguely, hoping vainly that the non-answer would satisfy Eju.

Eju snorted. “I can think of maybe three people who could teach you how to do rune tattoos, and none that actually _would_. So either you taught yourself, which, given your age, would make you the most powerful witch ever-” Ora felt her face go hot at the suggestion, “-or you somehow convinced one of them to teach you. Which was it?”

Ora took a deep breath and considered her options. None of them were good.

“Alright. I’ll tell you who taught me, but I’m not telling you why. Deal?”

Eju eyed her suspiciously, and Ora clenched her hands near her body to keep them from shaking.

“Deal,” Eju said finally, and Ora sighed in relief.

“General Nurhail.” 

Eju’s eyes widened. “REALLY?!”

The exclamation caused Ilei to stir slightly, and Ora’s heart climbed into her throat, only calming when she saw Ilei stop moving, still asleep.

“Not so loud!” she hissed at Eju, who looked appropriately ashamed for once.

“Sorry, it’s just… Well, he’s legendary. And legendarily ill-tempered.”

“I’m well aware of that,” Ora muttered, mostly to herself. 

“Okay, I know I said I wouldn’t ask how you got him to teach you, but can I ask a different question?”

Ora gave them a skeptical look. “I might not answer.”

Eju rolled their eyes. “Ooh, mysterious. I just want to know why you left.”

“What do you mean?”

Eju pointed at her arms. “Well, you clearly weren’t finished training. You’re missing all combat runes, and it would be kind of stupid to leave your training with no knowledge of fighting to go fight someone, so something must’ve happened before you joined the muscle brigade, right?”

Ora stared at them incredulously for a few seconds. It was easy to forget, what with Eju throwing themselves into danger without regard for consequences and being kind of a jerk, that they’d been alive for far longer than Ora could conceive of, and probably had the knowledge to go with that fact.

“We got into a…” _shouting, something smashing against a wall near her head, tears pouring down her face as she screamed and sobbed herself hoarse_ , “a disagreement, about what runes I would learn. I left about three years before I met Ilei and Bahral.” She turned away from Eju when she finished talking, forcing her hands to flex and wiggling her fingers to get the blood flowing again before going back to the breakfast.

“What did-”

“I really don’t want to talk about this anymore,” she said shortly. “I’m sorry,” she added as an afterthought, though whether she was apologizing for snapping or for not wanting to talk, she couldn’t say. 

A few minutes of tense silence followed, during which Ora finished preparing breakfast and they both ate. When Eju finished, they let their wings unfurl from their back and stretched. 

“I’m going to go see if I can find any news on the attacks while we wait for those two to wake up.”

Ora nodded in agreement. “Good luck.”

Eju just scoffed. “Who needs luck when you have connections?”

Ora didn’t point out that Eju had gone on a miniature rampage the previous night over the loss of those connections, not willing to disturb the tenuous peace if it wasn’t necessary. Before she could formulate a non-confrontational response, Eju was gone. 

She took a seat on the lone chair in the room, the one Eju had vacated, and tucked her knees under her chin. Memories she’d worked very hard to forget over the past three years started to play through her head without her permission.

_“I told you, I don’t want to learn combat magic!”_

_“It’s not about what you want, it’s about what is needed. Sakaeli is a dangerous place, Maora, and you will need to fight one day whether you want to or not.” General Nurhail’s back was to her as he cleaned the dishes from supper, and he spoke calmly, with the authority of someone who expected to be listened to._

_“I’ll be a healer then. Help anyone who gets hurt in one of your fights,” Ora said petulantly._

_“And waste your power? You are strong enough to fight, so it is your duty to-”_

_“Just because I’m strong doesn’t mean I’m violent!” Ora yelled, tears of frustration starting to spill from her eyes._

_A plate flew threw the air and smashed against the wall by Ora’s head, making her flinch as fresh tears streamed down her cheeks._

_“This fight will be yours, whether you want it or not,” he said coldly, turning away from her, back to the remaining dishes._

_“I AM NOT YOU!” Ora screamed, anger finally boiling over. “I DON’T WANT TO FIGHT, I NEVER HAVE!”_

_The next words were stated simply, calmly. Like fact. “Then you don’t care as much as you think you do.”_

“Ora?”

Ora snapped out of the memory with a start, Bahral’s amused face before hers as he waved a hand in front of her eyes.

“Yes?”

He laughed. “You were really zoned out, I thought you’d fallen asleep with your eyes open or something.”

Ora forced a small smile onto her face. “Nope, still here.” _Still here_.

“Thanks for breakfast,” Ilei called from the other side of the room. “Have you got our next move yet?”

Ora shook her head. “No. Eju’s out seeing if they can find news of another Khanal attack. If that doesn’t work, I’ll try a tracking spell, but since we don’t have anything of Ixaya’s to work with, it’ll be a bit of a long shot.”

Ilei hummed pensively, but Bahral frowned at her.

“Are you sure it was a good idea to let Eju out? They seemed pretty mad yesterday, they might try and make a break for it again.”

Ora shrugged. “They can try, but I can always just pull them back.” Besides, Eju seemed the type to prioritize knowledge over freedom, and Ora had left a lot of their questions unanswered. Not that she had any intention of answering them, ever, but if a few secrets was what it took to keep them in check… well, it wasn’t costing her anything.

Before either of the knights could bring up another grievance, Eju burst in through the door, out of breath.

“I’ve got news, and you’re not going to like it.”

***

Katali missed the cave.

It wasn’t a thought she’d ever thought she’d have, but after living in the woods for the better part of a week, the relative comfort of having a consistent home (and something to keep her from being rained on) was not something she ever intended to take for granted again.

Ixaya had had them stake out the area near the village where Katali had directed her attack, which would normally be a spectacularly stupid way to get themselves caught, but since they _wanted_ to be caught, they couldn’t complain. Or, well, Katali couldn’t.

“This is so _boring_!” Saresh whined dramatically from the ground. “No one’s living in the village anymore, and we haven’t moved in _days_. I’m dying, Ix.”

Ixaya ignored his tone, eyes fixed on the deserted houses of the village. “This is the next place they’ll come to investigate. This our chance to catch them off guard and get them off our tail.”

“No one has come close to catching us yet, and you can’t even know that they were looking for us! Maybe they just got lost and happened to find the hideout.”

Ixaya tore her gaze from the village and pinned a Saresh with a glare. “No one just “happens” to find a magically concealed entrance to a cave. _Someone_ is after us, and I’m going to crush them before they can get in our way!”

Katali flinched involuntarily, even though the tirade wasn’t directed at her. She knew, logically, that Saresh had far more experience dealing with Ixaya’s temper than she did, but she still didn’t understand how he could be so utterly impervious to it. 

He rolled his eyes and sat up, stretching. “Fine. But if nothing happens by tonight, I’m leaving.”

Ixaya huffed, but didn’t say anything, her attention now firmly returned to the village.

Saresh pulled out his knives and started sharpening them. 

It was the seventh time since they’d come here. Katali had been counting.

Ixaya was suddenly on her feet, something bright and terrifying alight in her eyes.

“I see people!” 

Katali walked slowly to her side and peered through the gap in the trees at the houses.

She could see a small group approaching the village. There were four people, a woman in a lavender dress with curly brown hair and dark marks on her arms, a tall, bulky man with a large beard and an axe strapped to his back, another woman, this one with shoulder length black hair and a sword, and a dark skinned, white haired figure that seemed to be flying.

“Do you think it’s them?” Katali asked skeptically. They didn’t look hugely imposing, except for the two with weapons. 

“Yes,” Ixaya said darkly. “The one with markings is a witch. And the flying one is a fairy.”

Katali didn’t ask how she could tell. The second was fairly obvious if you thought about it, and Ixaya could probably sense the other witch’s magic.

“What’s the plan?” Saresh asked from Ixaya’s other side, twirling his freshly sharpened knives with practiced ease.

Ixaya thought for a moment, assessing their opponents critically, running through potential plans to exploit their weaknesses. Katali had learned over the years that Ixaya wasn’t scary because she was bloodthirsty. Plenty of people were and inflicted far less damage than she did. She was scary because she _thought_. She angered quickly, but she didn’t lash out without thinking, she _planned_. It was why she won.

A cold smile spread across Ixaya’s face, and Katali felt a short pang of sympathy for the group on the other side of the trees. Whatever was coming wouldn’t be pretty. 

***

The forest floor after a rainstorm. An old and mouldering tree trunk. Dried and rotting flowers.

The same smell from the cave assaulted Ora’s nostrils as soon as they entered the village. She shut her eyes and sighed.

“Necromancy,” she confirmed somberly.

She’d suspected ever since Eju had come back from their recon mission with stories of a town just outside Kalassee that had been raided in the middle of the night by a small army of skeletons, but a part of her had held out hope that it had been an illusion of some kind. Anything but this.

“ _Nak_ ,” Eju spat, landing and kicking the dirt road in frustration.

“At least we know what the third member can do now,” Ilei said with strained positivity.

Bahral just sighed, staring down at the khana rune carved in the town square, same as all the others. 

“We need to find something that belongs to one of the Khanal so I can track them. We can’t keep getting there after they’ve already-” Ora stopped and cleared her throat of tears, squaring her shoulders before continuing, “It’s not good enough to get there after they’ve done their damage. We need to find them and stop them before they can strike somewhere else.”

Grim nods from everyone, even Eju. 

“Split up, check everywhere for something that doesn’t look like it belongs.”

“Hair, blood, and nails work best for tracking spells, so if you can find those, that would be ideal,” Eju added before taking off for the opposite side of the town.

Ora gave the two knights a tight smile and stepped into the nearest building, a grocer’s.

It was dark inside, and the shelves were empty of wares, which Ora wasn’t particularly surprised by. She looked around for a few minutes, but it seemed as though everything had been taken when the townspeople left.

She left the building, hoping for better luck at the next one, pausing briefly when she noticed scratch marks on the door, gouged deep into the wood. She remembered Eju saying that the skeletons had been found to have come from a local graveyard, and Ora had to swallow down a wave of nausea just imagining the scene.

Ora looked away from the door before her thoughts could drift any further in that direction, just in time to see a blinding white light from just outside the village. 

At first she thought it was lightning, but it lasted far too long, and despite the overcast sky, the weather wasn’t that of a storm. 

Briefly abandoning her search, she instead jogged to the outskirts of the village to see if she could spot the source of the light. What she found made her heart drop into her stomach.

A figure in a hooded cloak, arms outstretched, white light emanating from their body and into the ground, pulling skeletons up from the earth. 

The smell lingering in the air was suddenly so strong that it made Ora gag.

Ora nearly stumbled over her own feet in her haste to get back to the village, to warn the others.

“They’re still here!”

Ilei came running out of one of the houses, sword drawn. “What?”

“I don’t know if Ixaya and her brother are, but I just saw the necromancer,” Ora gasped out.

Ilei’s already serious face went grimmer. “Bahral’s in the tailor’s shop. Get him, I’ll go find Eju.”

Ora nodded and rushed into the tailor’s. She briefed Bahral on the situation, and he drew in a harsh breath before pulling out his axe and stepping between Ora and the door.

“Stay behind me.”

Ora would have been offended, but Bahral was without question a stronger fighter than her, and she had no real need to battle an undead army if she could avoid it.

Bahral kicked open the door, and what they found wasn’t a skeleton, but a living man, smirking at them and brandishing two curved knives.

“Oh, two in one place! Fun. Ixaya will want the witch, but you…” he eyed Bahral as he trailed off, dropping into a fighting stance, “I can have some fun with.”

“Ora, back door, go!” Bahral yelled, barely dodging the man’s first strike as he stumbled back into the shop. 

Ora obeyed, taking off at a run out the other door and into the alley behind the shop.

There were no skeletons here either, but she didn’t have time to feel thankful for that, letting her feet carry her wherever they felt was best, faster than she’d run in years.

She somehow found herself in the town square, and pulled up short when she saw who was waiting there.

Ixaya, instantly recognizable from the picture on the wanted poster, was standing on the khana rune in the center of the square.

Ora tried to leave before she was spotted, but Ixaya’s eyes locked onto hers, and she knew she was caught.

She barely had time to cast herself a shield before Ixaya drew a khana rune in her direction, and it was shattered.

Ora cast another shield, but Ixaya countered it as easily as she had the first one, this time throwing in a taunt for good measure.

“Come on, you went through all the effort to track me down, and now you won’t even fight back? Mahra!”

The new rune (impact, Ora thought hazily) hit her square in the chest and sent her flying backwards into the wall of one of the buildings. Pain stabbed through her skull, and the world went blurry. 

Ixaya was crouching over her now, leaning into Ora’s face. “And I thought I’d be able to get a proper fight out of you.” She pulled a small knife from her belt and sighed. “I never thought I’d use this, but you aren’t worth wasting magic on.”

Ora was having trouble focusing, but she forced herself to react as the knife was brought down towards her chest, reaching up and grabbing Ixaya’s wrist, holding her at bay.

“Lehir.” 

Ora felt her own palm heating up, the intensity mounting until she saw steam coming from Ixaya’s wrist and she yanked her hand away, hissing in pain. Ora took advantage of her distraction to visualize Ilei, and with a mutter of “tahira”, she was gone.

 

***

On the other side of the town, Ilei was also having a difficult time.

She sliced through another skeleton, just in time to duck out of the way of one of its recently reassembled brethren.

“They just keep coming!” she yelled in frustration at Eju, who had taken refuge on a nearby roof, because they were utterly useless in a fight.

“You need to take out the source!”

Ilei used the flat of her blade as a bat, knocking the heads off three oncoming skeletons at once. Huh. That was definitely more efficient.

“Mind telling me where that is?”

She kept fending off the undead horde while she waited for Eju’s answer. Just as she was certain she was going to be overwhelmed. Eju’s voice came calling from above. 

“Next street on the left!”

“Thank you!” Ilei took off at a sprint for the street, rounding a house with the skeletons in hot pursuit. 

The necromancer was standing behind a gate that had a view of the street Ilei had been fighting on, and started running as soon as they realized Ilei was onto them.

Unfortunately for them, Ilei was fast and she caught up quickly, once again using the flat of her blade, this time to knock the necromancer out with a sharp hit to the head. 

They dropped to the floor, and Ilei heard the clattering of bones behind her indicating that their troops had done the same. 

The hood of their cloak had fallen away, and Ilei could now clearly see that it was a girl, no older than sixteen.

Eju landed beside her and swore at the sight. “I’m not great with human ages, but-”

“She’s just a kid,” Ilei finished, horrified. Before she could process the new knowledge further, Ora appeared in front of them, stumbling slightly and grabbing both of their wrists. 

She looked dazed, and she was breathing hard.

“What-”

“No time. We need to get out of here. Have either of you seen Bahral?”

Ilei and Eju both shook their heads.

“He must still be there, then,” she muttered, mostly to herself. “How far away is the tailor’s?”

“The other side of town. Are you okay?” Ilei asked, the wild, panicked behaviour so unlike Ora that it was making Ilei nervous.

“No, we need to leave, she’s too strong for me-”

“Wait, you saw Ixaya?” Eju cut in, and Ora nodded, glancing frantically over her shoulder.

“We need to find Bahral, we need to-”

As though his name had summoned him, Bahral came running around a corner, clutching a gash on his left arm.

“What’d I miss?”

“Everyone hold hands,” Ora commanded, and everyone hurried to listen, the anxiety pouring off of her strong enough to deter questions. “Tahira.”

The nauseasting twisting feeling Ilei recognized from the escape from the cave came and went, and they were standing in front of a house surrounded by trees.

Ora broke away from the group, walked unsteadily to the door, and knocked.

After a few moments of tense waiting, a stern man with a walking stick answered the door. His eyes landed on Ora and widened slightly in surprise.

“Maora?”

It took Ora a second to respond, like she was surprised by the man's presence, despite having brought them all there. When she spoke, it was slow, as if the words were stuck in her mouth. 

“Hi Dad.”


	9. Home

As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Ora fell forward, not quite unconscious, but getting there.

The man, her father, _General Nurhail_ , caught her, despite the difficulty of maneuvering with his staff, and half walked, half carried her into the house, gesturing at the rest of the group to let themselves in.

By the time Ilei, Eju and Bahral were inside, Ora and her father had disappeared inside the house.

“Ilei?” Bahral said, voice strained.

“Yeah?”

“So, the guy got in a hit,” she knew that, she’d seen the cut on his arm, “and I’m not sure if his knives were poisoned or something, so can we do a reality check?”

Ilei nodded. “Of course.”

“The guy who let us in was General Nurhail.”

“Yup.”

“We’re in his house.”

“Uh-huh.”

“And Ora just called him “dad”.”

“Yeah.”

There was a long, heavy pause.

“Is it bad that I hoped I was hallucinating?”

“Nope, that’s actually pretty reasonable.”

Eju, who had been uncharacteristically quiet through the whole exchange, finally spoke.

“Why do you two know about General Nurhail?” 

Ilei gave them an incredulous look. “He’s the greatest general of our time, and we fight people for a living. It would be weirder if we _didn’t_ know about him.” 

“That and Chavari wouldn’t shut up about him,” Bahral said with fond exasperation.

Eju looked like they were about to say something else, but before they got the chance, General Nurhail returned, without Ora. 

“I healed her as best I could, but she needs rest. Is anyone else injured?”

Bahral indicated the gash in his arm, and the general placed his hand over it and muttered what Ilei assumed was the rune for “heal”. She was pretty sure she’d heard Ora use it before.

When the general pulled away, the wound was gone, but the blood on Bahral’s arm and hand remained. 

“There’s a well behind the house. Go get cleaned up.”

It was an order, not a suggestion, and Bahral complied.

The general looked them over critically. 

“Well? Is one of you going to tell me what’s going on?”

Ilei told the story as she knew it, starting from falling out of the tree and ending when they arrived at House Nurhail. Eju chimed in whenever they felt it necessary, and Bahral came back about halfway through and filled in what had happened to him during the fight. 

Ixaya’s brother was apparently alive and well, and pretty skilled with his knives.

The general listened to the story with a neutral, stony face. Ilei was struck suddenly by how much he looked like Ora, like that. When they finished he sighed, leaning heavily on his staff and running a hand over his face.

“There’s a guest house, Bahral will have seen it. You may stay there for now. I need to speak with my daughter.”

A dismissal, clearly. Ilei still had questions, lots of them, actually, but she’d rather ask Ora than General Nurhail. They were both unapproachable in their own way, but Ora was at the least the kind of unapproachable she was used to. 

“Thank you,” she hesitated briefly over what to call him. He was retired, so “General” wasn’t really appropriate, but she couldn’t very well call him by his first name. “...sir,” she settled on lamely, and made a hasty retreat, with Bahral and Eju in tow.

“Who’s Chavari?” Eju asked as soon as the door shut behind them, and it was so far from what Ilei had expected them to say that she laughed.

“She was a knight. Worked under General Nurhail in Tuldor for a while, then became a wanderer. She’s the one who trained me and Ral.”

Bahral nodded solemnly. “She’s awesome.”

They walked in silence as Bahral led the way to the guest house, which was nearly as big as the main house, and set up more like army barracks than a home. Eju still looked troubled, so Ilei poked them on the shoulder.

“What’s wrong?”

They huffed, and didn’t say anything, so Ilei assumed they were just being prickly and left them alone, subtly calling dibs on a bed by flopping down onto it face-first and contemplating falling asleep right then and there.

“Why didn’t I know he had a kid?!” Eju suddenly exploded, stamping one foot in frustration. “He’s one of the most powerful witches alive! I should have known he had a student, and I certainly should have known if he had a daughter!”

Ilei sat back up and exchanged a wary look with Bahral, who spoke first.

“Uh… I don’t think anyone knew, Eju. Don’t worry so much.”

“Yeah, well, I should have!” they snarled, and Ilei was beginning to think that Ora being General Nurhail’s kid was not really the problem here.

“It’s okay not to know some stuff. Hells,” she laughed, gesturing to herself and Bahral, “we’re both idiots and we do fine.”

Bahral nodded in agreement, and Eju rolled their eyes so hard Ilei was kind of surprised that they didn’t get stuck. 

“You wouldn’t understand. You’re human, you can get away with being out of the loop. For fairies, there’s _nothing_ more valuable than information. My powers have only been gone for a week, and I’m already…” they trailed off, too frustrated to properly express their emotions.

“Okay, I know you said you aren’t great with human ages, but you are aware that Ora’s more than a week old, right?” Ilei asked.

“Of course I know that!” Eju snapped, and Ilei raised her hands in surrender.

“All I’m saying is that you missed this when you had your powers, so it’s not that big a deal.”

“And you found out when you didn’t have them, so that’s good, right?” Bahral added uncertainly.

Eju looked from Ilei to Bahral suspiciously. 

“That actually helped,” they said, disbelieving. “Why did that help?”

Bahral shrugged. “The world’s a weird place. I stopped trying to figure stuff out a long time ago.”

Eju’s face split into a grin almost reluctantly, like they couldn’t believe their face was betraying them. “You really are idiots, aren’t you?”

“Hey, we aren’t dead. You may not like the method, but you can’t argue with those results.”

Eju’s grin widened further. “No, I guess I can’t.”

***

“Maora.”

Ora squeezed her eyes shut tighter, hoping that if she pretended to be asleep, he’d leave and she could sneak out, grab her friends, and pretend this had never happened. Who needed combat magic anyway?

“I know you’re awake.”

She sighed. It had been a nice dream, but it wasn’t a realistic one. She was here for a reason, and she needed to see it through. She sat up slowly, making sure her posture was good, and turned to face him.

He looked more tired than she remembered, and was relying more heavily on the walking stick.

“Why did you come back?”

It was an honest question, not an accusation, for once.

Ora shut her eyes, tried to decide how to answer.

“You’re the only one that can teach me. And I need to learn, now. I still don’t want to, but I need to make things right, and I can’t do that where I am right now.”

Her father continued to look at her, impassive as always. Gods, she’d really learned from the best, hadn’t she?

“Alright.”

Ora’s head snapped up to look at him. “That’s it? No speech about disrespect, no “I told you so”?”

Her father sighed, and sank down into the wooden chair beside her bed.

“Maora. I know that you aren’t a fighter. I think I always knew, but I hoped that if I pushed you enough, you would be. Sakaeli is dangerous, always will be, and I wanted you to be able to face that. But then you left, and you were on your own for three years, and the first time you ever needed my help was when you tracked down and fought a wanted murderer.” He shook his head, the corners of his mouth upturned ever so slightly. “I think that if anyone deserves to say “I told you so”, it’s you.”

Ora stared at him, dumbstruck.

“Now, that doesn’t mean you’re allowed to slack during training. But I wanted you to know.” He stood, and gestured vaguely toward the backyard. “Now, go tell your friends you aren’t dead. It’s polite, to let those who care about you know how you’re doing.” An edge of accusation crept into his voice, and Ora flinched.

Well, that had been nice while it lasted. She stood up and bowed slightly in his direction, before wandering out to find her friends.

***  
Bahral and Eju were engaged in a lively and passionate debate, which Ilei was mostly ignoring in favour of trying to nap.

“No, listen to me, a werewolf at full power could one hundred percent beat manticore!”

“Manticores have _poisonous tails_ , in what _universe_ \- Oh, hi Ora!”

Ilei was suddenly very much awake, and sat up immediately. She knew without looking that Bahral was laughing at her, but she didn’t care.

“Are you okay?”

Ora nodded and toyed with one of her curls for a second. “My dad healed up the concussion and bruised ribs, so I’m alright now, but I’d like to stay a couple of days to learn some new runes.”

Eju frowned at her. “Didn’t you-”

“Yes,” Ora said, cutting them off with a warning look, “but while we were in the village, I fought Ixaya. Well, not really fought, she just kind of beat me up, and that’s the problem. She only fights with runes, so I’m really the only one who can take her on, but she’s _far_ more advanced when it comes to combat magic. If I want to be able to help, I need to do this.”

“Alright, that makes sense.”

Ora relaxed visibly at that, but Ilei watched as another thought struck her and she started to worry her bottom lip with her teeth.

“What will you all do while I’m training? I can’t have you all sitting around doing nothing, that would be cruel.”

Gods, she was adorable.

“Ilei and I are very easy to entertain. Have you got somewhere we can train?” Bahral asked.

“Yes, there’s an arena in the woods.”

“Wait, an _arena_?” Ilei exclaimed. “Like, a full training arena?”

“Yes?” Ora said, looking puzzled by Ilei’s shock, as though it was normal for people to have full training arenas in their backyards.

“ _Awesome_ ,” Ilei and Bahral said together, and Ilei leaned across her bed to high-five him.

Eju cleared their throat. “And what am I going to do? I can’t hang out with just them for three days straight. I can feel myself losing brain cells every time we talk.”

“Hey,” Bahral interjected, “just because you can’t accept that manticores are superior to werewolves does not mean I’m stupid! Back me up here, Ilei!”

“You’re right about the manticore, but they’re right about you being an idiot, even if they could have been nicer about it.”

Eju raised their eyebrows at Ora in a look that clearly said “see?”.

Ora continued to gnaw at her lip for a few seconds, before suddenly lighting up in inspiration. 

“Oh! There’s a library on the second floor-”

“Great, bye!” Eju flew out the door and disappeared.

“...and they’re gone. Alright.” Ora smiled at them, but it seemed a bit strained. She glanced over her shoulder out the window, where they could see the sun beginning to set.

“I should probably get started on supper,” she said, going to open the door.

“Why would you be the one cooking? You’re a guest, aren’t you?” Bahral said, sounding almost offended by the idea. That in and of itself was not surprising, Aunt Yri would rather die than have a guest help with household chores, and she’d driven that idea very firmly into her children.

Ora hesitated. “I… I don’t know, actually. I always cooked when I lived here, but I haven’t been home in a while, so… I’m not sure.”

She looked lost, so Ilei gave her her most reassuring smile. “Hey, two minutes can’t hurt. At least let us update you on what happened to us during the fight.”

Ora had missed the briefing they’d given General Nurhail, after all, and Ilei figured she’d be too polite to ask even if she wanted to know.

The bait seemed to work, and Ora dropped her hand from the doorknob. 

“Alright. What happened?”

Bahral went first, recounting with many sound effects and dramatic gestures his fight with Saresh.

When he finished, Ilei told her side, and Ora listened carefully until the very end.

“Wait, how old did you say she looked?”

“Sixteen, maybe?” Ilei guessed.

Ora looked horrified. “They have a teenager doing all of this?”

Bahral nodded. “It’s not as uncommon as you’d hope. Kids are easy to trick into doing your dirty work, especially the ones who don’t have anyone to guide them.”

“We might be able to help her if we could talk to her, but-”

Ora shook her head sharply. “No. Necromancy is very evil magic, and if she can use it, she was beyond our help long before Ixaya got to her.”

Ilei wouldn’t normally agree, but she’d heard stories of the last necromancer. He was still deeply feared, a cautionary tale of how magic could be misused.

“In any case, she isn’t our priority, Ixaya is. We can cross that bridge when we get to it,” Ora said with finality, opening the door. “I’m going to go ask if he needs help. I’ll call you in when it's ready.”

She left quickly, leaving Ilei feeling distinctly unsettled.

“Ora doesn’t seem happy to be back, does she?” Bahral asked after a little while, effectively voicing what Ilei had been feeling since Ora had come into the guest house.

She and Bahral had only been home a few times in the five years since they’d officially become wanderers, but each of those times had been an undoubtedly happy occasion, not tense and anxious like this. It felt wrong. 

“No,” Ilei said finally, “she doesn’t.”

***

Her father had, in fact been expecting help for dinner, and scolded her briefly for arriving after sunset, which was when preparations usually began. Ora grit her teeth and ignored it, chopping vegetables beside him in strained silence.

As she’d suspected, he was favoring the staff more than when she’d left, and she spent most of the meal preparation working up the courage to ask him about it. 

When she finally did, he sighed heavily and put down the knife he’d been using.

“You want to take a look at it, I expect?”

“I told you, if you just let me see, I might be able to-”

“No.”

Ora took a deep breath, unclenching her hands from where they’d involuntarily curled into fists.

“Can you at the very least tell me why not?”

“I don’t want you to, and that ought to be answer enough. Dinner’s ready. Go get your friends.”

Ora went, forcing her hands flat against her sides. This was a years-old fight, and she didn’t want to revive it now. Three days. She was here for three days, and that was it. She could handle that.

She went to the library first, knocking twice before opening the door when she didn’t get an answer.

Eju was on the floor, surrounded by stacks of old books almost as tall as they were. They were muttering angrily under their breath, and hadn’t seemed to notice Ora’s arrival.

She coughed once, and they jumped.

“When did you get here?”

“A few seconds ago. I knocked.”

Eju didn’t seem convinced, but stood up and placed the book on top of one of the stacks anyway.

“The elf was right,” they said bitterly, marching towards Ora as though it was somehow her fault. “All precedents indicate that a manticore would beat a werewolf in a fight.”

“That makes sense, they do have poisonous-”

“If you finish that sentence, I’m going to push you out the window.”

Ora felt as though she was missing something, but decided it was in her best interest not to press the issue.

“You can go to the kitchen, we’re eating now.”

Eju looked longingly over their shoulder at their nest of books, and Ora sighed.

“You’re going to finish all of them by tomorrow at this rate,” she said reasonably, “and then you’ll have to spend time with Ilei and Bahral until we leave.”

Eju’s face split into a very wide, very fake grin. “Well, who am I to turn down a meal with the famed General Nurhail?”

Ora rolled her eyes. “Don’t be too… _you_ , okay?”

Eju breezed past her and down the stairs without looking back. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Ora found herself thinking, not for the first time, that it was probably a good thing Eju was immortal.

***

Dinner was hellish. 

Ora was used to her father’s sternness and strict adherence to proper manners, to the point that she had pretty much forgotten that not everyone had trained themselves against slouching from the day they were aware of it. 

“So, they allow hunchbacks into the army now?”

It had been nearly five minutes, it was really the best she could have hoped for.

Ora winced and carefully placed her fork down next to her plate. “They’re wanderers, Dad.”

“And that’s an excuse for poor posture?”

“They fight well, Dad. Isn’t that what matters?” Ora tried, tone bordering on desperate.

Her father relented, though she could tell it was only to avoid causing a scene. “So long as you don’t take after them, I suppose.”

Ora looked down at her plate, unclenched her hands, and started to eat again. When she finished and looked up, Ilei looked concerned, Bahral looked murderous, and Eju was sending calculating looks between Ora and her father.

“Well!” she said with forced cheer, ignoring the awkward scraping of her chair as she stood up, “We’ve all had a long day, and I’m sure we could all do with some rest. You can all go back to the guest house, and I’ll take care of dishes.”

Her friends, thankfully, took the hint and all left with muttered thanks. 

Ora cleared the table, and was on her way to the kitchen when her father spoke.

“Maora, you don’t have-”

“Go rest your leg, Dad, I don’t mind.” 

It was a thinly veiled jab, disguised as kindness. Standard fare, and it worked. He excused himself and left for his rooms, leaving Ora alone. She went to the kitchen, surprised to find Ilei already there, pacing.

“Is that… normal, for you two?” she asked, frowning.

Ora briefly contemplated lying, or avoiding the question altogether, but she was too exhausted to bother.

“Yes. That was tame, for him,” she tried to joke, but it fell flat, and she suspected she’d actually made things worse.

Ilei shook her head in disbelief. “You nearly died this morning, how can he-” she cut herself off with a frustrated growl.

Ora shifted the dishes to one arm and placed a reassuring hand on Ilei’s shoulder. “I stopped trying to answer that question a long time ago. Don’t worry yourself over it, alright?”

Ilei still didn’t look happy, but she relaxed a bit at Ora’s touch.

“At least let me do the dishes.”

“No, you’re a guest-”

“So are you,” Ilei said firmly. She paused for a second and huffed out a sigh. “Just… let me do this, please? I need to feel like I did something.”

Ora gaped at her for a long moment. She knew, vaguely, how much Ilei cared, how much she wanted to help everyone, but it was strange to come face to face with it directed at her, in her childhood kitchen.

“O-of course. I’ll see you in the morning.”

Ilei smiled softly, and collected the dishes from Ora’s arms. “Get some sleep, alright?”

Ora nodded mutely and walked off to her room, speeding up slightly as she passed her father’s door.

It took her a long time to fall asleep.


	10. Home-2

Ora woke with the sun, and went straight to the kitchen.

Her father was already there, dressed for training and in the middle of preparing breakfast.

“Ah, Maora. I was about to wake you.”

Ora could tell that he was implying that he didn't think she’d wake up on her own. She wanted to scream, tell him that she hadn’t slept in later than sunrise since she was five, that it was so ingrained in her that even when she’d left home, she’d only slept past six when she’d gotten cowpox a few months ago. 

She took a deep breath, and forced a small smile.

“Well, I suppose you won’t have to. What are we working on today?”

Her father passed her a mug and a bowl of porridge. “There are three main combat runes. We’ll do one each day.”

Ora knew that, but motioned for him to continue anyway.

“We’ll start with mahra, since it’s the easiest.”

Ora’s ribs ached at the memory of the rune being used on her the day before. “Impact, right?”

Her father nodded. “Correct. It can also be interpreted as “strike”. It’s good for long distance attacks, knocking your opponent out of the way, throwing someone off, other things of that sort.” He glanced at Ora who was about halfway through her food. “Bring that outside. You can eat while we start.”

***

By noon, Ora thought she was going to die.

Training had never been easy, and gods know she hadn’t forgotten that, but it was _nothing_ compared to combat training.

She’d been drilling for hours now, casting the rune over and over on the practice dummy across from her. Her fingers were starting to cramp from drawing the rune so often, but her father wouldn’t let her tattoo it until she’d mastered it to his satisfaction, and that had yet to happen.

“Again!” her father barked, and Ora shook her head and forced herself to ignore the ache in her bones and the hunger clawing at her stomach. 

She planted her feet and concentrated, drawing the rune in the air, and channelling all of her frustration into the spell.

“MAHRA!”

It hit the dummy dead on, sending it flying into the forest. 

She took a step back and exhaled shakily.

“Good enough. Go eat something, we’ll do the tattoo after that.”

Ora inclined her head and headed inside, wiping her hair away from her forehead as she did.

She stumbled into the kitchen, surprised to find Eju already there.

They gave an impressed whistle when they saw her. “You look terrible.”

“Thank you,” she deadpanned, picking up a loaf of bread from the table and tearing directly into it, without bothering to find a knife or something to accompany it.

Eju looked mildly horrified by this, which Ora could understand. It wasn’t standard behaviour for her.

“I found the training arena for the knights,” Eju said conversationally, and Ora slapped herself on the forehead.

“Oh, I forgot I said I would show them!”

Eju gave her a quick once-over, “I think they’ll forgive you. And they got inside, so.”

“How?” Ora asked confusedly. “It’s locked. And probably warded, knowing my father.”

“No wards, and you think I don’t know how to pick a lock?” Eju scoffed, as though offended by the suggestion.

Ora raised an eyebrow at them. “No, I don’t think you can. Your only non-magical skills are reading and annoying people.”

Their shoulders slumped, caught. “Bahral broke down the door.”

Ora stood up and started to leave. “That’s what I thought.”

Eju raised an eyebrow at her. “Aren’t you mad? I figured your dad wouldn’t like someone breaking his stuff.”

Ora shrugged. “That arena’s seen worse. And I can fix it before he notices, anyway.”

Eju, seemingly having reached their upper limit of caring for the day, didn’t bother answering. 

***

By the time Ora made it back to the training field, her father was already there, holding a bowl of black paste and a small knife, which he handed to her without ceremony.

The shape of the rune was almost second nature to draw after the brutal repetition of the morning, and it took only a few seconds for her to carve it onto the back of her left hand. It stung a bit, especially when she rubbed in the paste, carefully mixing it with the blood from the cut so the tattoo would work.

She carefully cleaned the excess paste, and was left with a new mark, stark black against the irritated red of the skin around it. 

Her father picked up the tools from beside her. “Test it out.”

He’d apparently retrieved the practice dummy while she’d been inside, and Ora got up and faced it, one hand out.

“Mahra.”

It wasn’t nearly as impressive as the last time she’d tried, but it did hit the dummy and knock it over, so she was satisfied.

Her father was not.

“That one was weak. Try it again.”

And on, and on, over and over until she was drained of magic and they broke for dinner. 

It was leftovers from the previous evening, and they ate together in silence, as Ora wasn’t keen on forcing her friends to deal with her dad again. He excused himself to his room when they finished eating, and Ora headed out to collect the knights. Based on the missing portion, Eju had already eaten, and she didn’t want to risk disturbing them while they read.

The walk out to the arena helped clear her head and calmed her somewhat. She still didn’t like being by herself when she didn’t have access to her magic, but it wasn’t exactly a feeling she was unused to.

The arena wasn’t huge, as it was meant for a small group of trainees to use, but it definitely cut an imposing figure squatting in the middle of the otherwise deserted woods. The door was laid carefully against the outer wall, and she smiled despite herself when she saw it.

She stepped into the arena, and found Bahral and Ilei sparring in the far corner. Bahral had abandoned his usual axe in favour of one of the available swords, and the clang of metal against metal echoed through the otherwise silent arena. That in and of itself was strange; Ora was fairly certain she’d never seen Bahral and Ilei together without one of them talking. 

Ora was content to just watch for a while. It was almost calming, like watching a dance, albeit a violent one. The rhythm was only altered when they turned around and Ilei was facing Ora. Bahral got in a lucky kick at that moment, sweeping Ilei’s feet from under her with a kick and knocking her onto her back. He laughed and held out a hand to help her up.

“You don’t normally fall for that feint,” he said, hauling Ilei to her feet, “What-ow!” he abruptly let go of her and shook out his hand like something had bitten it.

“Are you alright?” Ora called, taking a few concerned steps toward them.

Bahral looked at her, realization dawning on his face, though what he had realized remained a mystery to Ora.

“Yeah, I’m good. Must’ve twisted it or something. It’s fine now. What’s up?”

“Dinner’s ready whenever you want, I just came to let you know.”

Bahral looked a little uneasy. “Will your dad be there?”

Ora smiled tightly. “No, he ate already.”

He winced. “Sorry, I just realized how rude that sounded, so I’m just gonna-” he pointed over his shoulder with his thumb and jogged out the door before Ora had the chance to assure him that she understood, really.

“How was training?” Ilei asked, and Ora turned to answer her, only to realize that she hadn’t had a chance to look at her properly while she and Bahral were fighting.

“Your hair’s different,” she blurted, instead of answering.

Ilei laughed and touched the back of her head, as though confirming her hair was still there. “Yeah, Ral braids it for me whenever we train for a long time. Keeps it out of my face.”

“It’s nice,” Ora said, because it was, but her face heated up inexplicably.

“Thanks!” Ilei said, putting her sword down, and starting toward the door. “Uh, I’m pretty hungry, so I’m going to go join Ral. Sorry about the door, by the way. Bye!”

And she was gone. 

Ora felt somewhat like she had the night before, when Ilei had helped her with the dishes. It was strange, but not wholly unpleasant, so she decided to ignore it, for the time being. She wasn’t quite ready to head back to the house, so she went to the back of the arena, where the ladder to the roof was, and climbed up to watch the sunset. She’d done it quite often when she still lived here, as it was one of the few truly peaceful places on the Nurhail property. She sat there long enough that the sun had nearly disappeared behind the treeline, and was starting to contemplate going back, when she heard a confused call of “Ora?” from the ground.

Ora leaned over the roof and found Ilei smiling bemusedly up at her, sword in hand.

“What are you doing here?”

“I could ask you the same thing.”

Ilei scratched the back of her head, embarrassed. “Well, I was planning on training with Bahral a little more, but he passed out pretty much as soon as he finished eating, so that’s not happening. And I can’t sleep if I don’t have this,” she said, raising the sword slightly.

Ora nodded in understanding. “I get it. I have trouble sleeping when I overuse my magic.”

“Did you do that today?”

“Yes. Most training days, actually. But I’m used to it.”

Ilei looked away, and Ora was fairly certain she heard her mutter something like “you shouldn’t have to be” but Ilei was pretty far down, so she couldn’t be sure.

“Give me a second to get down, we can walk back together.” Ora scrambled down the ladder and jogged around the arena to Ilei, who was still frowning.

Ora poked her on the shoulder. “I said I’m okay, didn’t I? It’s fine.”

Ilei shook her head. “It’s not that, I was just thinking. Would it be better if you had something other than magic? To protect yourself with?” 

Ora shrugged. “I don’t know, maybe?” she’d never really considered it, with so much of her life focused on making her magic strong enough for her not to have a need for anything else. But she was human, and that meant that no matter what, she had an upper limit. “Why do you ask?”

“I could teach you some basic self defense, if you wanted. Bahral would be better for that, but he’s asleep, so.” Ilei let the suggestion hang for a moment, and when Ora didn’t answer, she started to backtrack. “No obligation, obviously, we can just head back, I shouldn’t have-”

“Do you think it would help?” Ora asked, cutting off Ilei’s rambling.

“It would definitely be useful for you, if you’re planning on staying with us for any length of time. In case Ral and I can’t get to you in time and you run out of magic. We should probably get Eju in on this too, come to think of it…” she trailed off, still thinking. “We can ask them tomorrow. And start tomorrow too, if you want.”

“A little bit now’s fine. Unless you’re tired.”

Ilei shook her head. “Nah, I’m good to go.” She gestured to the arena’s doorway. “After you.”

Ora went inside, and Ilei propped her sword against the wall before moving to the center of the arena.

“C’mere.”

Ora did as she was asked, standing in front of Ilei with her arms crossed while Ilei walked around her, evaluating.

“Okay. The dress isn’t ideal, but it’s what you usually wear, so we’ll work with it. Otherwise, not bad, but you need to fix your stance.” Ilei tapped her own legs and went into a half-crouch. “Feet shoulder-width apart, knees a little bent. Good!” she said, beaming, when Ora imitated the position.

“Why?” Ora asked, feeling somewhat ridiculous.

“It’s easier to dodge like this, and you’re harder to knock over. Now,” she held her arms out, palms toward Ora, “punch me.”

Ora felt a horrified look bloom on her face. “What? Why?”

Ilei laughed at her. “First, you’re just punching my palms, it’s fine. Second, it’s kind of the point of doing this?”

Ora grumbled at her, but eventually threw a punch toward Ilei’s left hand. 

“Not bad, but if you actually want to do any damage, you need to-”

It went like that for the next hour, simple drills and Ilei correcting her technique and joking with her. Ora found herself thinking that if magic training was anything like this, she wouldn’t dread it so strongly.

Eventually though, Ora was yawning more often than she was punching, and Ilei called it quits.

“You need to wake up at stupid o’clock tomorrow, go get some rest. I’ll get Bahral to practice with us tomorrow, so you can try techniques against someone bigger than you.”

Ora didn’t point out that Ilei had more than three inches on her, because that likely wasn’t what she’d meant.

They walked back to the guest house together, said goodnight, and Ora returned to the house and went to bed, exhausted but satisfied.

***

The next two days went quite similarly; magic during the day with her father, bearing every underhanded jab and endless repetition with the promise of improvement, and time with her friends in the evening.

Eju and Bahral joined training on the second day, and Eju surprised absolutely no one by being a ridiculously dirty fighter, resorting from everything to insults to biting in order to win. They never did, but their determination was impressive.

The most difficulty Ora had was with the khana rune, which was annoying, but unsurprising, given her history with it. It took her much longer to get to her father’s satisfaction than the others, and by the time she’d been dismissed, Eju had beaten her to the arena.

“You’re late!” they crowed happily from their position in the rafters, where Bahral was trying to swat them down with a broom. “The great Maora Nurhail, late!”

Ora didn’t have enough magic to cast a strong rune, but the mahra she sent Eju’s way was at least powerful enough to knock them to the ground, which was quite satisfying.

“You’re mean when you’re tired,” they groaned from the floor, and Ilei kicked them. 

“That sounds like a you problem. Up.”

Ora felt herself relax into the casual banter of the group, and she was glad they were leaving in the morning, so she wouldn’t have to wait until sunset to be around it.

“Basic combat drills to start. Ora, you’re with me, Eju, try not to annoy Ilei too much.”

Ora liked sparring with Bahral best. He was surprisingly careful with her when they fought, and he always threw in advice while their match was in progress. Plus, he was arguably the most realistically sized opponent, which made it reassuring when she managed to hold her own against him, even though she knew he wasn’t going all out.

“Not bad!” he laughed when they finished, clapping her heartily on the back. “You’ve gotten much better.”

“Thank you!” 

Ilei clapped loudly to get everyone’s attention. 

“Final exam time! Eju versus Ora, first outside the boundary loses!” she yelled, drawing a large circle in the packed earth of the floor with the tip of her sword.

“No magic, no flying, minimal biting,” Bahral added. 

Ora dropped into a fighting stance across the circle from Eju, who bared their teeth at her in a manic grin.

“You’re going down, Witchy.”

“GO!”

Eju charged her first, unsurprisingly. Ora dodged and landed a kick to the small of their back, sending them sprawling, but they were still inside the circle. They were on their feet in an instant, smirk in place. Ora was beginning to think it was a good thing they’d been given an outlet for their rage, even if she was unfortunate enough to have been caught in the crossfire. They charged her again, and when she dodged this time, Eju hooked an arm around her neck and swung themselves onto her back. 

“Who taught you that?” Ilei called from the sidelines, sounding equal parts impressed and concerned.

“Six hundred years of bar fights!” Eju replied, digging their arm into Ora’s windpipe. She was running out of time, and options, so she did the first thing she could think of, and flipped them over her shoulder so they slammed back-first onto the ground. She heard the air leave them in a wheeze, and was about to finish the match by pushing them outside the border when a horrified gasp of “Maora?” came from the doorway.

“Dad!” she said quickly, stepping away from Eju. “What are you doing here?” 

“I heard yelling. I came to make sure everything was alright.” He eyed the group disdainfully. “Apparently, I was right to do so.”

“It’s just a training match, no one’s hurt,” Ilei assured, and General Nurhail turned a cold glare on her.

“You fight like barbarians. There is no art or honour here.”

Ilei flinched as though he’d slapped her, and Bahral stepped forward to defend her. “Well, we were taught our “barbaric” fighting by one of your former soldiers, _sir_.”

He scoffed. “No soldier of mine would-”

“Chavari did,” Ilei bit out, gesturing at the arena at large. “Clearly.”

“Chavari was a strong fighter, but she lacked discipline. It’s a shame that that’s the trait she chose to pass on to you.”

“She idolized you!” Bahral yelled, taking a step forward, only stopping when Ilei grabbed his shoulder and held him back. “Gods know I can’t tell why, but I won’t have you slander her like this!”

“Then you may leave,” he said coldly. 

Bahral shook out of Ilei’s grip and stormed past Ora’s father, Ilei and Eju following shortly after. Ora started after them.

“If you go with them, you will no longer be welcome in my home.” 

Ora froze, and took a deep breath. 

“It was never much of a home to begin with.” 

She walked out the door, ignoring the outraged cry of “Maora!” behind her, and the tears stinging her eyes.

***

Fifteen minutes later, she was in front of the house with her friends, trying to figure out where to go next.

“We’re near Tuldor,” she finally suggested. “We’ve had decent luck with big cities, we might as well try there.”

She received murmurs and grunts of agreement, and they headed out, silence hanging oppressively over the group.

“I tore page fifty out of every book in the library,” Eju said finally, breaking the quiet.

A laugh bubbled involuntarily from Ora’s chest. “What?”

“Exactly what it sounds like. He seems like the kind of pedantic nakara that would annoy.”

Ora kept laughing, so hard that she had to stop walking, until it eventually subsided into something dangerously close to tears. There were arms around her then, which she recognized as Ilei, and she buried her face in her shoulder. More arms and bone crushing pressure (definitely Bahral) and she heard the muffled sounds of an argument that ended with an awkward pat on her shoulder, which she guessed was Eju.

The impromptu group hug ended eventually, and Ora heard Ilei say softly that this was probably a good enough place to set up camp.

They refused to let Ora do anything, and got her sleeping stuff set up first, and she didn’t even have the strength to complain, just dropped down and was asleep within seconds, the last thing she saw her friends, illuminated by the dim glow of the fire.


	11. Kuya

The next morning was fairly uneventful. 

No one mentioned the night before, or even the time they’d spent at General Nurhail’s house, which Ilei could tell Ora appreciated. 

Ilei was almost tempted to vote it the most normal day she’d had since they’d recruited Ora, but apparently the gods enjoyed proving her wrong, because they’d barely sat down for lunch when she heard something big moving in the trees.

Ilei was the first one up, creeping toward the shaking bushes as quietly as she could, before suddenly pushing them aside, sword drawn.

There was a surprised yelp. “I’m sorry! Please don’t stab me!”

Ilei lowered her sword. The source of the sound was a girl about her age, with long black hair and dark eyes. She had her hands up in front of her in a gesture of surrender, a large canvas bag spilling its contents on the ground at her feet.

“Don’t sneak up on people like that,” Ilei said, not unkindly, crouching down to pick up the girl’s bag. 

“I’m sorry,” she babbled, “I didn’t realize there was anyone here, I never would’ve done this on purpose.”

“Hey,” Ilei said gently, trying to calm her down, “it’s okay. Don’t worry about it.”

The girl smiled sheepishly and took back the bag, swinging it over her shoulder. “Thank you. I really should get going though, I need to get to the market in a few days or Mom will be furious with me.”

Ilei frowned. “Wait, you’re walking all the way to Tuldor on your own?”

“Yes? I know the way, don’t worry.”

“No no, I’m definitely gonna worry,” Ilei laughed. “My friends and I are heading that way, why don’t you join us? It’ll be much safer.”

“Are you sure?” the girl asked hesitantly.

“Of course! It’s kind of our job.”

“Thank you so much,” the girl said with a sigh of relief. “My name’s Kuya, by the way.”

“Nice to meet you, Kuya. I’m Ilei. Now, we should probably head back before my friends start to worry.”

Kuya laughed shyly, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear. “You’re sure they won’t mind?”

“Of course not,” Ilei assured, turning and stepping through the plant cover back into the clearing where the others were waiting.

“Oh, there you are!” Ora exclaimed, sounding relieved. “We were about to go looking for you!”

Ilei smiled at her. “I’m fine, don’t worry. Everyone, this is Kuya.” She stepped aside, and Kuya gave a small wave. Ilei pointed at everyone and introduced them, saving Ora for last. Kuya’s eyes lit up when she saw her, and she took a few steps forward, taking Ora’s hand and shaking it firmly.

“I like your tattoos! They’re runes, right? You must be a witch!” she giggled. “I’ve never met a witch before!”

She was still holding on to Ora’s arm, and Ora shot Ilei a panicked look over Kuya’s shoulder. Ilei knew Ora wasn’t huge on physical contact with strangers, however well-intentioned.

She laid a gentle hand on Kuya’s shoulder, and she let go of Ora to look at Ilei. Her eyes seemed to flash solid black for a second, but it was gone before Ilei could confirm it. Still, she was startled enough to let go. Ora had moved away by that point, anyway.

“I just need to eat something, and then we’ll head out again, okay?”

Kuya smiled brightly. “Alright!”

Ilei ate quickly and quietly, mulling over the strange incident in her head as she chewed. It was possible she was just seeing things, but given the ridiculous number of shapeshifters she’d encountered in her life, she was unwilling to let it slide too easily.

Ora took the lead when they started off again, since she knew the way best, and Kuya stuck beside her, chattering away excitedly. Ora would smile every once in a while, and even laughed a few times, and it made something cold and unpleasant settle in Ilei’s stomach. It must have been obvious, because as soon as the feeling made itself comfortable, Bahral swung an arm around her shoulders and ruffled her hair.

“Someone’s jealoussssss,” he sang teasingly, and she pushed him off of her with perhaps more force than was necessary.

“I am _not_! Jealousy is a weak and cowardly emotion and I-”

“She’s definitely jealous,” Eju chimed in from her other side, and Ilei groaned.

“You can’t gang up on me, that’s just unfair!”

“Maybe,” Bahral said, clapping her enthusiastically on the back, “but it’s so much more fun.”

“Okay, let’s say I am,” Ilei started, glaring at Eju when they muttered a “you totally are” under their breath, “that’s no reason not to be concerned! Everything is constantly trying to kill us, remember?!”

Bahral gave her a skeptical look. “You once let an incubus travel with us for a week without noticing he was a monster.”

That was true, but it was during her first year, and he’d seemed so sad- Not the point. “Fine, yes, I did do that, but he didn’t do anything suspicious! She did!”

Bahral sighed. “What did she do?”

“When I got her to let go of Ora earlier,” Bahral and Eju exchanged a look, which she ignored, “her eyes went solid black for a second! That’s pretty suspicious!”

Bahral patted her gently on the back, which was almost more insulting than his patronizing: “Whatever you say, Ilei.”

“It’s true!”

Eju joined in on the sympathetic patting, mouth twitching as they fought back a smile. “Whatever you say, Ilei.”

“I hate both of you.”

“Whatever you say, Ilei.”

“ARGH!”

***

Ora had to admit, she was pleasantly surprised by how nice Kuya was, given that the last few people she’d encountered on their quest were a spite-fuelled fairy, half the criminal population of Kalassee, and her father. She’d apologized profusely for making her uncomfortable earlier, and made conversation for the entire day’s walk.

She was a weaver by trade, from a small village a few hours' journey from where the group had picked her up, but she sold her wares in Tuldor, where there was more business. She smiled a lot, and talked with her hands, so quickly sometimes that there seemed to be more than just two of them.

By the time they’d settled down for the night, she was willing to call Kuya her friend, especially after she shared some of her supplies and gushed about the meal Ora had cooked using them.

They all sat around the fire for a little while, talking and swapping stories, though Ora noticed Ilei was being unusually quiet, not even stepping in when Eju recounted the fight with the necromancer.

“You really took out a whole army of skeletons on your own?” Kuya said, awed, but instead of bashfully deflecting the praise like she usually would, Ilei’s eyes widened in shock and she stood up suddenly.

“I, uh, don’t feel well. I’m going to go to bed early.”

She was gone before anyone had a chance to respond.

“That was strange,” Ora said pensively, starting to stand. “I’ll just go check on her-”

Bahral held out a hand to stop her. “She’s been weird all day, don’t worry about it. She probably just needs some time alone and a good night’s sleep.”

Ora wasn’t convinced, but Bahral knew Ilei best, so she didn’t try to argue the matter, and sat back down.

It didn’t take long for everyone else to decide to start getting ready for bed as well.

Ora set herself up in her normal spot, a little ways away from Ilei and Bahral, who always slept right next to each other, as far as possible from Eju, who (if they did sleep) moved around and occasionally engaged their wings while still asleep, and was therefore a nightmare to be around.

She was just starting to drift off when a soft swishing noise beside her roused her. She opened her eyes to find Kuya laying her mat down next to hers, an apprehensive look on her face.

“Can I sleep next to you?”

“Of course,” Ora mumbled sleepily.

Kuya looked relieved. “Thanks. I just feel safer near someone with magic, you know?”

“Ilei and Bahral are probably better if you’re looking for someone to protect you.”

“Maybe. But I like you better.”

Ora’s cheeks felt hot, but she chose to ignore it, which ended up being fairly easy, as she suddenly felt much more tired than she had before, and had barely closed her eyes before she was asleep.

***

“-didn’t see anything?”

“No, I swear! And I don’t understand why you’re freaking out, she’s just sleeping.”

“She never sleeps past sunrise. _Something_ must have happened.”

Ora slowly blinked her eyes open, sluggishly forcing herself into a seated position.

“What time is it?” she asked. Words didn’t seem to be processing properly in her head, and she still felt tired, despite having slept fine during the night.

“Oh thank the gods.” Ilei again. She dropped to her knees in front of Ora and pressed the back of her hand to her forehead. Her eyebrows were slightly knit together, not angry, but concerned.

“I don’t think you have a fever, but it’s nearly ten and you look pretty pale. Can you stand?”

Ora nodded, and got unsteadily to her feet, before promptly falling forward into Ilei’s waiting arms when they abruptly stopped responding to her. 

“...No.”

Ilei laughed breathily and laid her back down. “Yeah, I figured that one out. I think we’ll stay here for the day, sound good?”

Ora tried to protest, they needed to get moving, they couldn’t afford to rest, but she was already starting to fall asleep again, so she couldn’t.

***

Kuya insisted on staying near Ora, which Ilei _hated_ , but since she didn’t technically have a reason to dispute it, she just dealt with it.

She worked on her weaving while she sat beside Ora, and every once in a while, Ilei would look at her and could swear she had four arms, but as soon as she tried to get Eju and Bahral to look, she went back to normal, and it was driving her insane. 

When she really couldn’t handle it anymore, Ilei dragged Bahral out into the woods under the guise of hunting, leaving Eju behind to keep an eye on Ora and the definitely-a-monster.

Once they were out of earshot, she listed everything suspicious that Kuya had done, from the eyes, the needle-toothed smile Kuya had sent her way at the fire the previous night, the suspicious number of limbs, and the fact that _something_ was making Ora sick.

“Do you believe me now?” she asked imploringly.

“No,” Bahral said, completely throwing her off. 

“WHAT?!”

“I don’t think Kuya’s a monster, I think Ora’s exhausted because she overexerted herself for three days straight and you’re paranoid.”

Ilei dug the heels of her hands into her eyes. “Look. Ral. I know that you think I’m just being jealous, but you _know_ I wouldn’t push this if I didn’t truly think something was wrong. I need you to trust me on this, _please_.” 

Bahral met her eyes, waiting for any sign she wasn’t convinced of what she was saying. She didn’t give any.

“Fine,” he said finally. “But we can’t just charge in there and stab her. We have to be sure that she’s up to something.”

Ilei nodded in agreement. “Thank you.”

“Hey,” Bahral said, grabbing her shoulder when she started back towards camp, “You know that I trust you, right? I just don’t want you to make a mistake you can’t undo.”

Ilei smiled at him. “I know. Come on.”

As soon as they stepped into the clearing, Ilei knew something was wrong. Ora’s mat was empty, Kuya and her bag were both gone, and Eju was nowhere to be seen.

There was a muffled “mph!” noise from above them. Ilei looked up at the tree they were standing under, and came face to face with Eju, who had been attached to one of the branches by thin silk thread from their feet up to their neck, with a small, tapestry-like gag stuck to their mouth.

Bahral swore and reached up to pull off the gag.

Eju gasped in some air, then smiled sheepishly at Ilei.

“So the monster theory may have had some merit.”

***

Once they’d gotten Eju down, they explained what had happened as quickly as possible.

Kuya had acted as soon as Bahral and Ilei were far enough away, by using the contents of her bag (spider silk, and lots of it) to tie Eju to the tree, before picking Ora up and running off.

She had apparently finally revealed her true form during the attack, an eight-limbed, fanged, spider-woman hybrid with eight solid black eyes.

Luckily for Eju and Bahral, Ilei’s need to scream “I TOLD YOU SO” and slap both of them was overpowered by her concern for Ora’s safety.

“So,” she asked Eju, “any idea what she is?”

 

“My best guess is a jorogumo,” Eju said grimly.

Bahral sighed. “Wait, let me guess. They eat people?” 

Of course they did. _Everything_ ate people.

Eju nodded. “And they have a particular fondness for magic, which is probably why she went after Ora.”

“Okay, so we need to find them, _fast_ ,” Ilei said decisively, turning to Eju. “Any idea how to do that?”

Eju bit their lip, mulling it over. “I might be able to reverse engineer the tracking spell if I concentrate, but I can’t promise that it’ll work.”

Ilei squared her shoulders and took a deep breath. “Well, it’s all we’ve got, so let’s hope it does.”

 

***

Ora couldn’t move.

She was spread out in a star position, and trapped on something vertical and sticky. 

“Oh good, you’re awake. I thought I’d overdone it.”

The voice was familiar, but it had a strange rumbling quality to it that hadn’t been there before.

“Kuya?”

She felt movement to her left, vibrations spreading through whatever she was stuck to and jostling her around slightly.

Kuya’s face -- with significantly more eyes and some monstrous teeth that definitely hadn’t been there before -- appeared before hers, grinning.

“Correct!” There were more vibrations, then a scrabbling noise as she left the web (Ora was now fairly certain it was a web) and stood instead on the cave floor.

“I’m surprised you didn’t figure out something was up. You seemed so smart,” she sighed, and it almost sounded genuine. 

“Why am I alive?” Ora asked. She didn’t want to sound ungrateful, but it was strange.

“I don’t get company very often, and you were interesting. I wanted to talk a bit more before I ate you.”

She still sounded so cheerful, which was infinitely more unsettling in her true form. 

“Why not just not eat me at all, then?” Ora tried, and Kuya laughed.

“Oh, clever! It won’t work, but that was a nice try. I’ve already eaten some of your life force, and it was really good.” She licked her lips, granting Ora another view of her terrifying teeth. “And I haven’t had a proper meal in so long. You’d think it would be easy to find _someone_ with strong magic wandering around, but they’re surprisingly sneaky. I was going to make do with Ilei, but when she introduced you, well. It was no contest.”

Ora decided it was in her best interest to keep Kuya talking. It wasn’t often an enemy revealed their weakness right at the start, and it was even rarer for it to be something as easy to exploit as boredom.

“Why not Eju then? If you were looking for magic, I thought they’d be the obvious choice.”

Kuya squinted at her, which, given that she had four pairs of eyes, was somewhat disconcerting. 

“Eju doesn’t have any magic left, and fairies are so hard to kill. Besides, it was a lot of fun to mess with Ilei.” 

“Mess with her? How?” Ora asked, and she barely had to fake interest.

Kuya waved one of her arms dismissively. “Oh, just dropping the illusion when only she was looking, letting her see just enough to be suspicious. That sort of thing.”

“Why Ilei?” 

Ora, despite herself, was considering what she would do in Kuya’s situation, and she definitely would have targeted Eju with partial reveals. They were the newest and least experienced member of the group, so they were the most likely to be ignored. 

“Why…” Kuya cocked her head curiously and looked Ora over, like she was trying to see if she was messing with her. Finally, her eyes widened, and she laughed.

“Oh my gods. You really don’t know, do you?”

Ora was, frankly, annoyed that the spider monster seemed to be more in the loop about one of her friends than she was.

“No, I clearly don’t. What are you talking about?”

Kuya grinned. “Oh, I suppose I could tell you, since you’ll be dead soon anyway, but it’s so much more tragic like this, isn’t it?”

Ora suddenly felt a patch of skin near her left elbow, where her mehrei rune was, heat up significantly, and she had to bite back a smile. Eju must have figured out how to find her.

She just needed to keep Kuya talking for a few more minutes.

“Well now I have to know!” Ora enthused, pouring what little acting ability she had into sounding convincingly desperate.

Kuya seemed to consider it for a moment, but then her eyes focused on Ora’s left arm, and she knew she’d been caught.

Kuya climbed back onto the web, scuttling up to Ora’s arm and inspecting it.

“Why is it glowing? Did you call them here?”

“Of course not!” Ora said quickly. “I don’t have enough magic for that, it must just be acting up.”

Kuya leaned her face close to Ora’s eyes narrowed. 

“You’re lying.”

Ora’s heart was beating so quickly that she could barely think straight, but she at least had the presence of mind to shake her head and shrink back as much as she could.

Kuya sneered at her. “Well. I think you’ve served your purpose as entertainment.”

Ora tried, vainly, to free herself from the web as Kuya reared back and unhinged her jaw horrifically, prepared to strike.

Ora shut her eyes, but instead of a bite, she heard a howl of rage and opened her eyes to see Kuya scrabbling to the other side of the web. She was missing a leg, which Ora found by her feet, twitching gruesomely next to a familiar axe.

“RAL! STOP THROWING YOUR ONLY WEAPON!”

“IT WORKED, DIDN’T IT?!”

Ora could have sobbed for relief.

“Hey, Witchy.”

Eju appeared in front of her, wings fluttering, holding a small knife. Ora didn’t have time to be nervous about that before they got to work, cutting an outline around her until the webbing gave out and she dropped to the ground. Well, not really, as Bahral was waiting under her and caught her easily.

“Let’s get you out of here.”

“What about Ilei?” she asked, twisting slightly in Bahral’s arms in an effort to spot Kuya.

“Don’t worry about her,” Bahral said dismissively, as an enraged scream echoed through the cave, “she has some stuff to work through. She’ll be fine.”

Ora was still reluctant, but since she couldn’t move, she wasn’t exactly in a position to dispute the issue.

Bahral took off at a light jog, Eju following close behind, only stopping once they’d passed through the waterfall at the entrance and gotten to a small copse of trees that provided decent cover in case something went wrong.

A few minutes later, Ora had finally convinced Bahral that really, she was feeling much better, he could put her down. Ilei emerged from the cave the cave shortly after, sporting a few nasty scratches and a black eye, but otherwise unharmed. She was breathing hard, and covered in bright blue blood, but she was grinning.

All Ora could think of when she saw her was what Kuya had said, about tormenting her, and before she could talk herself out of it, she ran forward and wrapped her arms around Ilei, eliciting a surprised squeak.

“Ora?” she said hesitantly, voice strained.

“She told me what happened. I’m sorry we didn’t believe you.”

“Hey, you didn’t do anything. And I invited her to come with us, so it was my fault anyw-”

“Shut up.”

Ilei laughed incredulously. “What?!”

Ora rolled her eyes. “Only you could take out a monster single handedly and find a way to feel guilty about it,” she said fondly, pulling away and smiling softly at Ilei, who was very red. Must have overexerted herself.

“I’ll take care of your injuries when I get my magic back, okay?”

Ilei nodded mutely, and gestured vaguely at Ora. “You’ve got, uh…”

Ora touched her own cheek, and her fingers came away blue. She wrinkled her nose in disgust.

“Maybe some cleanup is in order.”


	12. The Wishmonger

“Stop picking at it.”

Ixaya leveled Saresh with a withering glare, which he resolutely ignored, and continued to fiddle with the bandage around her right wrist. It was a habit she’d picked up whenever she was thinking, ever since her fight with the other witch. _Ora_. Even the thought of her was enough to have Ixaya picking at the bandage with renewed fervor. She had _rune tattoos_ , and she didn’t even fight back until the very end, and even at that, she’d fought with fire. Not even a proper combat rune.

Well.

If she didn’t think Ixaya was worth the effort, she just had to prove her wrong, didn’t she?

It had taken her a long time to figure out a tracking spell, one of the disadvantages of being self-taught, but she’d finally got it, and thanks to the not-insignificant amount of blood Saresh had gotten from the big one, the trail they were following was about as clear as it could be. Ixaya smiled to herself, and, finally tired of the damn thing, ripped the wrapping away from her wrist altogether. She was met with an angry red handprint that wrapped nearly completely around it, thumb curling under her wrist to meet the four distinct fingers. She clenched her hand into a fist, and tore her eyes away.

***

“A whole week, Ilei? Really?” Ora said, sounding fondly exasperated.

It was really unfair of Bahral to tell Ora about the incubus incident while Ora was healing Ilei’s injuries and she couldn’t defend herself. Come to think of it, that was probably why he’d done it, the jerk. Ora’s gentle fingers brought her out of her thoughts, warmth spreading over her eye before slowly receding, allowing her to finally blink properly as the black eye vanished.

“He didn’t even try anything!”

Ora raised a single disapproving eyebrow at her. “I really don’t think that’s the point.”

Ilei got to her feet and pointed accusatorily at each of her friends in turn.

“I’m striking out on my own. I’ll become a rogue, earn gold and glory, and leave you all in the dust.”

Eju rolled their eyes. “Please. You’re the most heroic hero to ever hero. You’d be a terrible rogue.”

“Especially if you decide to befriend another inccubus,” Ora said, and Ilei turned her most betrayed look on her, which Ora met with a small smile.

Ilei couldn’t find it in herself to be mad at that. 

Having successfully healed Ilei and figured out where they were in relation to Tuldor, the group started out on another day of travelling. 

They had left the woods, and were walking along the edge of a picturesque and terrifying ravine, which Ora swore was the quickest route to the city. Ilei trusted her, but walked as far away from it as she could without ending up back in the forest and kept pace with Bahral so he could serve as a barrier between her and the drop. She didn’t like heights.

Bahral, being the best friend ever, didn’t mention it.

They chatted back and forth as they walked, light and easy, until Ora, who was in front, stopped abruptly and held out her hand to indicate that the others should do the same. 

“What’s wrong?” Ilei asked, noticing the worry on Ora’s face.

“It smells-”

“Like necromancy?”

Ilei whirled around to face the source of the new voice, drawing her sword instinctively.

It was Ixaya.

“That would be Katali. I needed some kind of distraction, you know.”

She was holding a struggling Eju around the throat against her chest, sneering cruelly. She had a red handprint on her wrist that hadn’t been mentioned by anyone they’d asked about her, and Ora flinched almost imperceptibly when she noticed it.

Ixaya held Eju out in front of her and cocked her head to the side like she was admiring them.

“Well, it seems Katali was right. They really can’t use their magic.”

“I can still bite your fingers off you murderous, conniving-”

“Oh, rude, too!” she said, almost cheerfully, increasing the pressure around Eju’s throat until their tirade choked off. “I almost think you would have been better suited to our little group.” She sighed. “Unfortunately, you’ve already picked a side.”

There was a rustling behind them, and Ilei looked over her shoulder to find Ixaya’s brother and the necromancer emerging from the woods. They were surrounded.

“Now, heroes,” Ixaya drawled, sounding almost bored, “you have a choice to make. Either you give me the witch,” she pointed at Ora, “or I crush the little one’s windpipe, drop them into the river, and we see how well that turns out.”

Ilei’s grip on her sword’s hilt tightened. Eju was immortal, so they’d definitely survive that experience, but Bahral’s words from Kalassee came back to her, in a much darker tone: _Immortal doesn't mean invulnerable._

They were still struggling, clawing at Ixaya’s hands, kicking and flailing in an effort to escape, but she held strong. 

“What’ll it be? I’m getting impatient.” The pressure from her hand increased slightly and Eju wheezed, stilling.

Ilei glanced over at Ora, who looked horrified, but not frozen. She was thinking, and Ilei felt herself relax slightly. Ora could plan her way out of almost anything, she could figure this out.

“Let them go,” she said finally, stepping forward with her hands pressed together at the palms. A surrender.

“Ora you can’t-” Bahral started, stepping in front of her.

“I can,” she said firmly. “I don’t have a choice.”

It wasn’t the answer Ilei had been expecting, at all, and her grip on her sword tightened once more as she watched Ora step away from them and get her hands tied together by Ixaya’s brother.

“Wonderful,” Ixaya said, a mocking smile splitting her face as she released Eju, over the ravine.

“EJU!”

Ilei, briefly forgetting her fear, ran to the edge of the cliff, just in time to see Eju’s unconscious body hit the water and be swept downstream. 

She turned back to the Kahnal, rage clouding her vision.

“You lying _nakara_.”

Ixaya simply shrugged. “Trust is weakness, hero. You should know that by now.”

“Good point,” Ora replied, throwing her head back so it hit her captor in the chin. He stumbled back, and she took advantage of his distraction to run back to Ilei and Bahral, neatly ducking under the rune Ixaya furiously cast in her direction.

“Ropes please,” she said urgently, and Bahral obligingly sliced through her bindings.

“KATALI!”

Glowing white magic poured from the necromancer, and the ground under their feet rumbled as a small army of skeletal woodland creatures, ranging from deer to rodents to birds to a bear, rose and charged at them.

A swift hit with her sword took out a huge swath of them, and she prepared for them to knit back together like they had in the village. When they didn’t, she was hit with a sudden realization, and her stomach dropped into her shoes.

“It’s just a distraction! They’re running away!”

She carved herself a path through the horde, but it was too late. They were gone.

Ilei was snapped out of her disbelieving haze when the bear took a swing at her, and was promptly decapitated by Bahral. She focused on the task at hand after that, until every zombified woodland creature was nothing more than a lifeless pile of bones.

Ora was breathing hard, they all were, but she turned determined eyes to the ravine and activated the connect rune on her arm.

“Let's find our fairy.”

***

The feeling of your trachea repairing itself was not a pleasant one, something that Eju could now (unfortunately) testify from experience.

When they regained consciousness, they’d washed up on the bank of the river, presumably the one at the bottom of the ravine, as Ixaya had threatened.

They were cold and soaked through, and when they tried to use their wings, they just sagged sadly and refused to move, so they folded them back and got to their feet.

Their throat felt significantly better than it had when they’d woken up, which, honestly, wasn’t saying much. They decided to follow the river, opposite to the current, so they’d be found quicker. The mehrei rune on their arm was at work, so they knew help was on the way, but they were tired, and they wanted this over _now_ , and they figured meeting the heroes halfway would probably be more efficient.

They’d been walking for a few minutes when the cliff beside them gave way to a forest, and they groaned. This entire gods-forsaken country was forest.

Eju was about to continue when they realized that what little bank there was stopped entirely after the forested area, and the heroes would have to come from there. Eju didn’t think Ora would teleport unless it was absolutely necessary, which, considering the pathetic amount of magic at a human’s disposal at any given time, wasn’t unreasonable. They were about to scope out somewhere marginally warmer to wait for their friends when they noticed a white feather resting on the muddy bank. They knelt down and picked it up, holding it to the light and studying it curiously. 

It was so bright it almost seemed to be glowing, and the white was shot through with the occasional thread of gold. 

“A swan maiden?” Eju muttered to themself, lowering the feather and checking the ground for more.

They found some, in a sparse trail leading deeper into the woods.

Eju stared at them for a few long seconds, then decided that they _needed to know_ , consequences be damned. 

Ora could track them, anyway, and it wasn’t like they’d get a chance like this again.

They followed the feathers into the trees, all the way until they came to an abrupt stop in a seemingly innocuous area.

They looked up, and found a girl with a feather cloak around her shoulders floating a few metres above them, glowing energy encasing her hands as she glared down at them.

Eju raised their hands in surrender.

“Hey, woah! I don’t mean any harm!”

The girl slowly sank to the ground in front of Eju, the white feathery cloak losing its glow as her dark hair settled around her shoulders. She gripped the cloak so tightly around herself that her already pale knuckles turned bone white, like she was afraid someone would take it from her if she let her guard down. 

“How did you find me?” she asked, sounding genuinely confused. “I was so careful to stay hidden.”

“Well,” Eju said, holding up the feather, “you’re shedding.” They sat down on the ground with their back to a tree. “Also, I’m pretty lost.”

The girl cocked her head to the side. “You’re a fairy, aren’t you? Just open a portal.” 

Eju smiled bitterly. “Trust me, I’d love to, but unfortunately,” they flicked up their wrist, showing the girl the mark that distinguished them as magicless, “not really on option.”

“Oh,” the girl said simply. “That must be awful.”

Eju stretched, putting their arms behind their head and leaning more fully on the tree. “Can’t argue with that.”

“You don’t seem very upset about being lost. Or losing your magic,” the girl said skeptically.

Eju raised an eyebrow at her. “If you’re going to be prying into my personal life, can I at least know your name?” It was perhaps unfair to snark at someone they’d gone out of their way to disturb, but they wanted to know more about the swan maiden, and this seemed like an effective way to do that.

“Mahée.”

“Eju,” they supplied in turn. They wouldn’t have, usually, but hanging out with humans had made them break a few more fae habits, like not sharing names. 

“It’s nice to meet you, Eju.”

Eju snorted. “Haven’t heard that in a while. I usually get greeted with something more along the lines of “Oh gods not you again”.”

Mahée looked confused again. “But when you have your magic stripped, you’re banished too, aren’t you?”

“Yep. But that doesn’t mean I can’t make new friends.”

Well. “New friends” was somewhat inaccurate. Eju hadn’t really had friends before Ilei, Ora and Bahral, and if they had asked, Eju would’ve vehemently denied being friends with them. 

“I’ve never made friends with mortals,” Mahée said, wrinkling her nose. 

“I wouldn’t either, given the choice.” They tapped the second mark on their arm, the mehrei rune. 

Mahée looked troubled, grip tightening on her cloak again. “Someone trapped you?”

Eju sighed. “Not technically? She meant well, and I’ve gotten used to it. Hells, I’ve started to like the idiots.”

Mahée didn’t seem satisfied by this answer. “I don’t think I could ever trust a human enough to be friends with them.”

“Why not?” Eju wasn’t hugely familiar with swan maidens, but they’d thought they were friendly with humans, or at least neutral on them. 

“If we’re free, we can live forever. But mortals don’t care about that. They want brides, and wishes. So they keep our cloaks, force us to stay and give them whatever they want until we die, trapped and drained of our magic.” Mahée’s voice grew angrier with every word, and her eyes started to gleam, filling with unshed tears.

“That’s terrible,” Eju whispered. It was easy to forget, given the company they kept now, how awful mortals were capable of being.

Mahée deflated somewhat at that. “I’m the last of my kind left, now. It’s lonely.”

“I’m sorry,” Eju said softly, not sure what else they could possibly say.

Mahée smiled sadly. “It’s not your fault. Besides, you’ll know what it’s like soon. To be the last.”

Eju sat up abruptly. “What do you mean?”

“I’m just saying. You’ll never see another fairy again. You’ll be alone, like me.”

Eju shook their head. “No, I won't be. I told you, I’ve got mortal friends.”

“That’s the thing,” Mahée said sadly. “Mortals die. Maybe not right away, but they do, always.”

Eju felt the bottom drop out of their stomach. They’d always known, in a distant sort of way, that not everyone was immortal. But they’d never been confronted with it directly, and certainly not in a way that applied to people they knew. People they liked. Stupid, noble people, who would probably die gruesome and heroic deaths at a very young age. 

Fae friendships were more like careful alliances, none of the easy banter and trust Eju had known with the small band of heroes. They’d never really felt the need for it before being banished, but now they couldn’t imagine life without it. 

They felt tears pricking at their eyes, which was a new development, and utterly terrifying. 

“Oh no,” Mahée said, slightly panicked, “I didn’t want to upset you. I’m sorry.”

Eju waved her off. “No, no. You’re right.” They laughed humorlessly. “I’m not used to caring so much.” 

Mahée looked pensive for a moment, then seemed to be seized by an idea. “I might be able to help with that.”

“What?” Eju turned to look at Mahée, who still looked thoughtful.

“I can’t undo the banishment, but I might be able to return your powers.”

Eju was too blindsided by the possibility to notice the shadows behind Mahée condensing, and taking an almost human form.

“Really?”

“I grant wishes, don’t I?” she said with a smile. 

“What’s the catch?” Eju asked suspiciously. They were fae, and they knew that anything this good came with conditions. 

“It’s a very small one, and it’ll be good for you, if you meant what you said.”

“What do you mean?” they asked suspiciously, carefully keeping their hands folded against their chest, defensive.

“You may find you don’t care for those mortal friends of yours as much as you once did.”

Eju sat back, considering. It was strange, but the idea of suddenly not caring about the heroes felt almost worse than the idea of watching them die. “I’m not sure.”

“You need to choose soon,” Mahée said darkly. “Something’s coming closer.”

Eju suddenly noticed a chorus of voices, three, exactly, calling their name out in the woods. They’d had a similar problem when they’d used the connect rune to find Ora yesterday, the closer they got, the less specific it was. Ora. They’d come so close to losing her yesterday, and this morning, and-

“You won’t have to hurt anymore,” Mahée coaxed gently, breaking them out of their thoughts. “And you could be strong again. Worth something.”

“I heard something over there!” 

Bahral’s voice, getting closer. Eju glanced over their shoulder into the trees, then back at Mahée. She was smiling like a promise, with her hand extended toward Eju.

“You won’t get another chance like this, you know that. Just take my hand.”

Eju glanced down at her hand, right as Ilei stumbled into the clearing.

“Eju!” she exclaimed, overjoyed. “Thank the gods!” She turned and called “I FOUND THEM!” over her shoulder, before looking back at Eju.

She did a double take as she took in the scene fully, including the looming shadow behind Mahée, growing with every passing second.

“Whatever she’s promising,” she said, panicked now, “don’t listen.”

Eju looked from Ilei to Mahée and back again.

“You’re smarter than this, Eju,” Ilei pleaded. 

Eju closed their eyes, the tears from earlier making a reappearance. 

“I can’t do this. I tried, but I can’t.” They couldn't. They weren't kind and strong, they barely understood humans on the best of days, but the idea of losing them was unbearable anyway. They’d had lifetimes to get used to semi-omnipotence, and it was too much to lose at once. “I am so _tired_ of being useless.”

“You aren’t useless, I promise-”

“I’m so tired of caring,” Eju said, defeated. They turned to face Mahée, who was still smiling warmly. 

“Eju, please!”

They took Mahée’s hand.


	13. Get it Together

“NO!” 

Ilei watched, helpless, as the shadow behind the swan maiden crossed by her hand, wrapped itself around Eju, and disappeared.

Eju looked down at themselves and flexed their fingers. They were glowing softly now.

“It worked,” they said quietly, disbelieving. They laughed sharply, taking flight and spinning in a slow circle, marvelling at themselves. “It worked!”

The glow around Eju started to get stronger as their laughter got louder, and Ilei figured now was probably the time to go.

She ran over to the swan maiden, who was lying on her back, staring at Eju with a look of absolute horror on her face. Ilei pulled her to her feet.

“Get us out of here!”

The girl shot a terrified glance at Eju, who was still growing brighter, then shut her eyes. The forest swirled to darkness around them, before rematerializing a few seconds later. 

“Ilei!” 

Ilei looked over her shoulder for the source of the voice, and Ora ran up to her, crushing her in a hug. This was apparently a thing now, which was fine. Totally fine.

“Where’s Eju? And who's that?” Bahral asked.

Right. Priorities, Ilei.

She broke out of the hug, gestured over her shoulder at the swan maiden, and said, with more venom than was perhaps necessary: “Ask her.”

The swan maiden (Mahée, they learned) gave them an abridged version of her conversation with Eju, while Ora’s expression got progressively stormier.

“So…” Ora said, once Mahée was done, “you gave an emotionally unstable and occasionally murderous fairy a _vengeance spirit_?”

“It was the only way to get rid of it!” 

Bahral raised a single disapproving eyebrow at her. “And how did you end up with it in the first place?”

Mahée clenched her hands into fists and glared them down. “Everyone I ever loved was killed. I thought making others feel the way I did would help, but I was wrong. I realized my mistake, but I’d already taken the spirit by then. I couldn’t get rid of it, and once it realized I wasn’t listening to it anymore, it started to take over.”

“So you just passed it off to the next person you saw?” Ilei demanded.

“No!” Mahée shook her head vehemently. “It has to be taken willingly.”

“Oh, so you just tricked Eju into taking it by promising them they’d get their powers back. That’s so much better,” Bahral said sarcastically, rolling his eyes.

“I didn’t mean for it to happen! I isolated myself out here because I didn't think anyone would find me, but they did, and it...” she trailed off, clutching at her cloak and looking at the ground. “It took over, after a while, and I guess it was persuasive.”

“You took the spirit in the first place. As far as I'm concerned, this is on you,” Bahral snapped. 

Ilei gave him a warning look, even if she knew where he was coming from. She felt bad for Mahée, really she did, but you didn't mess with spirits, _whatever_ the circumstances. Everyone knew that.

Ora laid a hand on Bahral’s arm. “Right now, we need to fix Eju. We can scold Mahée all we want after, but once Eju gets used to their powers again, that spirit isn’t going to let them sit idle for long.” 

She was right, she always was, but Ilei could tell Bahral still kind of wanted to punch Mahée in the face. 

“Alright,” Bahral said, hoisting his axe over his shoulder. “Let’s go fight a fairy.”

“Not so fast,” Ora cut in. “Eju’s got their powers back, which means this is going to be a magical fight.”

“And we won’t be very useful,” Ilei added, knowing that Ora wouldn’t say it. 

“Maybe not for fighting them, but what about the things Eju will want vengeance on? The dragon’s already dead, but that village that had them publicly humiliated...” Bahral trailed off, the implications of the statement clear enough that he didn’t need to finish the thought.

“Right.” Ora turned to Mahée. “Get them to that village. Then come back here and help me take care of Eju.”

Ilei gave her a disbelieving look. “Ora, they’re a fairy, and they’re hosting a spirit. You can’t fight them alone, that would be suicide!” 

Ora smiled reassuringly, or tried to. It came off strained.

“I’ll figure something out. Don’t worry about me.”

Ilei was about to protest that she would worry as much as she pleased, since Ora insisted on suddenly adopting all of Ilei’s self-destructive habits simultaneously.

“Mahée, if you would.”

Mahée didn’t say anything, but she nodded. Before Ilei had a chance to argue the point further, Mahée had grabbed her and Bahral by the forearms, and they swirled out of existence, leaving Ora behind. 

***

Ora liked to think that she was an organized person, someone who thought things through.

She’d considered things that could go wrong when she’d tethered herself to Eju, and mentally tallied pros and cons, possible worst case outcomes, and risks.

This was such a bad situation that it hadn’t even made the list.

She paced back and forth for the few minutes before Mahée came back, trying and failing to come up with some kind of plan.

Mahée rematerialized, expression grim but determined.

“Is there anything more I can do to help?” 

Ora considered the question for a few moments, before asking: “What do you know about the vengeance spirit? What weaknesses does it have?”

Mahée twisted her cloak nervously. “I don’t know much. It needs a host to exist outside the spirit realm, and it can only be passed to a different one if both agree to the exchange. It can’t use the same host twice, either.”

So they couldn’t have Mahée take it back. Not that that would have significantly improved the situation, but it still felt like a blow.

“Do you have any idea how to get rid of it?”

“It can be banished if the host is killed,” Mahée said hesitantly. “I don’t know of any other way.”

Eju was immortal, so that was impossible. Besides, they were Ora’s friend, and no matter how annoying they were, Ora didn’t want them dead. She sighed and raked her hand through her hair in frustration. 

“Of all the people to get possessed, it just had to be our planner, didn’t it?” she grumbled to herself. She could use six-hundred-plus years of knowledge right now.

Ora looked down at her tattoos, hoping for inspiration. The combat runes were out of the question. Even if they did work, they would hurt Eju, and she didn’t want that.

Her eyes were suddenly drawn to “shield” rune, and the beginning of an idea started to take root. It was a terrible one, but time wasn’t on her side, and if it didn’t work, she had a backup plan, but she really hoped it wouldn’t come to that. 

“Alright,” she said, mostly to herself. She took a deep breath. “I have a plan.”

Mahée perked up instantly. “Do you need me to do anything?”

Ora nodded. “Get me to Eju, and stick around after. If it goes wrong, I need you to do something for me.”

Mahée nodded and set her jaw. “What?”

Ora smiled ruefully. “Banish the spirit the old fashioned way.”

Mahée looked horrified. “You want me to-”

“Only if the first idea doesn’t work,” Ora assured her. Not that she thought the first plan was likely to work, but Mahée didn’t need to know that.

Reluctantly, Mahée took hold of Ora’s arm and the forest swirled away.

They were now at the base of a rocky cliff, which she recognized as a part of the ravine Ixaya had thrown Eju into. Well, at the very least, they hadn’t gone far yet.

“Witchy! What a pleasant surprise,” Eju’s voice drawled from nearby.

“Hide somewhere where you can see,” Ora hissed under her breath, and Mahée vanished from her side.

“Hello Eju,” she replied as pleasantly as she could manage, turning to face Eju, who was seated on an outcropping in the cliff, smirking down at her.

They whistled mockingly. “So formal! What, aren’t we friends anymore?” 

“I’m friends with Eju. Not whatever this is,” Ora said, waving vaguely at them.

Eju barked out a laugh. ““Whatever this is”? That’s cute.” They leaned forward so they were nearly nose to nose with her. “This is what I’m really like, Witchy. Disappointed?”

“I already know what you’re like,” Ora said firmly, “and this isn’t it.”

“You don’t know anything.” Eju said calmly, hopping down from their perch so they could poke Ora in the chest. “The only me you know is the weak, powerless one. Well, guess what? They’re gone!” They snapped their fingers and an explosion wracked the cliffside, creating a rain of rubble that Ora barely managed to dodge. “I don’t need you anymore. Any of you.”

This was escalating faster than Ora had hoped. She tried to stay calm, but it wasn’t easy. “This power isn’t yours, Eju. I know how hard it is to-”

“NO, YOU DON’T!” Eju exclaimed, flipping suddenly from superiority to rage. One of the boulders from the destroyed cliffside lifted itself and flew at Ora, who ducked out of the way. “YOU STILL HAVE YOUR MAGIC! YOU _CAN’T_ KNOW WHAT IT’S LIKE!”

 

Alright. Calm wasn’t working anymore.

“So what then?” Ora taunted, “You’ll live the rest of your life as a puppet for that spirit?”

“AUGH!” More rocks came flying at her, one managing to clip the side of her head before she could get out of the way. It knocked her over, and she was fairly certain her ear was bleeding, but she felt fine otherwise, so she got to her feet and continued.

“I know you Eju, whether you think so or not. You hate being controlled. You won’t be happy like this, and then you’ll end up like Mahée, tricking someone into taking the spirit so you don’t have to deal with it anymore. Then you’ll be powerless, with only the guilt of everything it made you do for company!”

Eju paused, breathing hard. There was a brief flash in their golden eyes, something that looked like regret.

Ora knew this was likely her only opening, so she said a quiet “sahe” under her breath, and felt the shield rune on her wrist warm up as it took effect. 

“What should I do, then if you’re so smart?” they asked, sneering.

“Give it to me. We’ll find a way to get your powers back permanently, without its help.”

Eju thought about this too, and Ora swore she could hear a hissing laughter coming from Eju’s shadow. 

Ora had to fight back a smile. She’s hoped for this. The spirit wanted weak hosts, easy to control, and a witch was definitely weaker than a fairy. Now she just needed it to convince Eju. 

She held out her hand.

The hissing, inhuman whisper seemed to grow louder. _Go on_ , it said, _let her taste_.

Eju hesitated a second longer, then took her hand. The spirit flowed out of them and gathered around Ora like a malevolent mist. She let go of Eju’s hand once the spirit was out of them, and focused all her energy on keeping her shield up.

_Foolish girl_. The spirit hissed. _Your magic won’t keep me out forever_. 

“Maybe not, but you haven’t got forever, have you?” Ora asked innocently.

_What are you talking about?_

Ora gestured at the spirit’s essence, which was starting to fade away, thankfully faster than Ora’s shielding was. 

“You can’t survive here without a host, right?”

_I’ll be seeing you again, witch_ , the spirit snarled.

It sounded like a promise, and one that Ora didn’t doubt would be seen through. Dread pooled like ice water at the base of her spine, but she made sure not to show it. “Not for a while, it would seem.” She gave the dissolving spirit a sarcastic wave. “Bye.” 

The spirit didn’t have a face, but Ora could somehow tell it was glaring at her. Then it was entirely gone, and her shield sputtered out right after. No more magic for the day, then. 

With that sorted, she turned her attention to Eju, who was sitting on the ground with their knees tucked under their chin, staring blankly at nothing.

She ignored them, for now. 

“Mahée?”

The swan maiden appeared before her, visibly shaken.

“ _That_ was your plan? No wonder you had me as backup.” She muttered the last part, and Ora pretended not to have heard her.

“Can you bring Ilei and Bahral back, please? You can leave after that.”

Mahée nodded and vanished, and Ora finally turned her attention to Eju.

“Get up,” she said, gently but firmly.

Eju opened their mouth to say something, but Ora cut them off before they could.

“Anything you have to say, you say to everyone.”

Eju got to their feet, staring at the ground as though it held the secrets of the universe.

Mahée and the two knights appeared in front of them, after which Mahée gave her a shy wave and vanished again.

Bahral marched over to Eju and punched them in the face, hard enough that Ora heard something crack.

“WHAT IN THE NINE HELLS WAS THAT?!”

Eju’s nose was now gushing blood, but they held a palm under it and tried to answer. “I’m sorry. I-”

“Sorry doesn’t cut it.” Bahral was fuming, more angry than Ora had ever seen him. He looked like he wanted to punch Eju again, but Ilei grabbed his elbow before he could try.

“We trusted you,” she added, and Eju winced. “We all trusted you, and we tried to help you, and the second we leave you alone, this happens? We thought you were hurt, or as close to dead as a fairy can get. We were worried about you, and we wanted to help you, and then I finally find you and you, you gave up! You gave up and you betrayed us, and do you have _any_ idea how much it hurts to see your friend slip away from you like that?” Ilei cried, voice growing more pained with each word.

“NO, AND I DON’T WANT TO FIND OUT!” Eju finally answered, having broken themselves out of their shock.

They were shaking, and pointed at each of them in turn. “You’re all mortal. You all came into the world knowing that you’re going to die one day, that _everyone_ is going to die one day. I don’t- I _didn’t_ have that. And now, suddenly, there are people I care about, and you’re all going to die, and I can’t do anything to stop it, and I HATE IT! I hate it so much because I never cared about anyone who could die before, but I do now, and I’m scared! I’m scared because you’re all so… _fragile_ , and I can’t help, because the only thing I was ever good at got taken away from me, and I don’t know how to live without it!” 

They paused to wipe viciously under their eyes. 

“So I’m sorry, I really am. When Mahée said she could give me my magic back, and that she could make me stop caring about you, it sounded so much easier. So I listened, and it was stupid and selfish and if you never forgive me, I understand.” They stopped, taking a deep, shuddery breath and crossing their arms.

Ora was too dumbfounded to respond.

Bahral, apparently, was not.

He shook his head at Eju, then snorted. “That is the most overdramatic faerie nonsense I’ve ever heard.”

Eju gaped at him, but Bahral wasn’t done.

“You’re willing to host a gods-damned vengeance spirit for our sakes, but you can’t, oh, I don’t know, TALK TO US ABOUT YOUR PROBLEMS?!” he yelled. “Gods, Eju, I know you’re new to human friendships, but that’s just insane.”

“I didn’t realize it was a problem until Mahée brought it up!” Eju exclaimed defensively.

“AND? Talk to us, _nakara_!” Ilei added, having recovered enough to join in on the scolding.

“I tethered you to me so we could help you adjust to semi-human life without destroying the world in the process. I’d be doing a pretty terrible job if you weren’t able to come to us to ask about being mortal.”

Eju looked as though they’d gotten whiplash.

“That’s it? You’re not throwing me out?”

Ora exchanged a look with the two knights before answering. “No. Like we said the first time, we’re keeping an eye on you until you know how to function like a normal human being. Letting you loose would be irresponsible, considering what the results have been so far.”

“You’re stuck with us, dude,” Bahral summarized helpfully.

“But if you screw up this badly again, we will be alerting the High Fae. And I know you don’t want that,” Ilei said with a warning smile, and Eju’s eyes widened.

“How do you-”

“You think you’re the only fairy I’ve met?” Ilei scoffed. “Frankly, you’re giving the species a bad rep. But that’s not the point. The point is, you and I both know what happens if we contact the High Fae about your little adventure, right?”

Eju nodded vehemently, and Ora shot a confused look at Bahral, who shrugged helplessly. Huh. Ora would need to ask Ilei about this later.

“Well, ain’t that sweet,” came a crooning, unfamiliar voice from above them.

Ora squinted up at the top of the cliff, where a tall, gangly man in a riotous outfit waved down at them.

“I think you lot’ll be a very interesting show indeed. Rhinen, Grezer. Get ‘em.”

Ora didn’t even have time to react before there was a sharp pain in her shoulder, and she dropped to the ground, unconscious.


	14. The Ringmaster

When Ora woke, it was with a splitting headache and a mouth that tasted like something had died in it. She blearily opened her eyes, and found herself looking at a ceiling. That was strange, she could have sworn they’d been-

The events prior to her being knocked out suddenly came rushing back, and she shot bolt upright, scanning her surroundings in a panic.

Someone was sitting beside her, and perked up excitedly when they noticed her stirring.

“You’re up!” said the someone, who Ora determined was Bahral, based on the voice. Well, that was something, at least. 

It took her a moment to adjust to the dimness of wherever they were and actually _see_ Bahral, and be able to tell it was him.

“I am,” she finally replied. “Where are we?”

“No idea. I’ve only been awake for twenty minutes, and we were already here when I woke up.”

Ora briefly wondered how Bahral had recovered from the tranquilizer before her, given that she’d been shot first, but then remembered that he was twice her size, and decided that it actually made a good deal of sense. 

“Wait, I have an idea.” She shifted so her palm was pointed at the ceiling, raising her hand a little above her head.

“Emra.”

Nothing happened. 

“Well, wherever we are, it's been less than twelve hours since we were taken,” she sighed, frustrated. Being without her magic was stressful enough at her father’s house, but in an unfamiliar environment, it was infinitely worse. 

“So we're somewhere mysterious and hostile, you have no magic, and we don't know where Ilei and Eju are?”

Well, when he put it that way, things sounded pretty bleak.

“I suppose so, yes.”

“Do you want me to take care of that for you, then?” Bahral asked, pointing at Ora’s ankle.

She looked down, and noticed that she had been shackled to the wall. Bahral's own ankle still had a cuff with a bit of chain hanging from it, though it was no longer attached to anything. 

“If you would.”

Bahral reached over, wrapping one hand around the chain near where it was imbedded in the wall and the other closer to her ankle. He pulled sharply, and the chain snapped.

Ora forgot, sometimes, how strong Bahral was. She usually saw him and Ilei taking on beasts six times their size or people with magic of some variety, and that made it easy to forget that in a straight fight, he would win more often than he wouldn’t.

“Thank you.”

He grinned at her. “No problem.” Something seemed off about his face, but in the half-light, she couldn't quite tell what. “So, wanna get out of here?” 

Ora nodded emphatically and got to her feet.

The only exit was on the other end of the small room, a heavy wooden door reinforced with bands of iron. The walls were made of uneven stones, solidly linked with mortar. Not promising for a quick escape.

“I know I just watched you snap a metal chain with your bare hands, but I kind of doubt that you can break that down.”

Bahral's grin only widened. “And you'd be right. However,” he walked over to the door, and with two precise pulls, removed the hinges from their slots, allowing the door to swing open, if in the opposite direction than was attended, “this isn't my first time in a jail cell. I checked for guards while you were still out. ”

Ora smiled, impressed, before the rest of Bahral's sentence sank in. “Wait, when were you-”

“Not important,” he said quickly, “let's just go.”

Ora decided to leave it alone until they weren't in immediate danger. Or, well, as close as they ever got.

She followed Bahral into the corridor outside their cell, which was made of stone and seemed to contain only their door. It was also much better lit than their room, and she finally figured out what had been bothering her about Bahral's face.

“Don’t freak out, but-”

“You do know that’s just going to make me freak out more, right?” Bahral asked with a strained laugh, glancing over his shoulder for oncoming assailants.

Ora winced. “Right, sorry. It’s just… your eyes are green, right?”

“Yeah...” Bahral said hesitantly, “Why?”

“They’re grey right now.”

“Really?” Bahral prodded at his face, like if he tried he could feel the change. “Don’t worry, it’s an elf thing. The green fades when I’m away from the forest.”

Ora frowned. “I don’t remember that happening in Kalassee.”

Bahral shrugged and started to walk down the hall. Ora followed him.

“It probably didn’t. Kalassee’s in the forest, technically. Hells, most of Sakaeli is.” He was quiet for a moment, until an idea seemed to strike him. “Wait a second, this is good! The only places far enough from the forest for this to happen are at sea, the Northern mountains, and the Shion desert.”

Ora considered the stone walls. “Probably not at sea.”

Bahral laughed. “Yeah, probably not. But that’s good right? Narrows it down even more.”

Ora hummed thoughtfully. “I suppose, but neither option is _good_. No matter what, we’re on the opposite side of the country from Tuldor, and we don’t even know where Eju and Ilei are.”

“You can track Eju with your rune, right? Once we get out, and your magic comes back, we'll find them in no time.”

Ora was impressed by his optimism, but couldn't find it in herself to feel the same. She'd had trouble tracking Eju yesterday, and they'd never been more than a few leagues away. Now, for all they knew, Ilei and Eju could be on the other side of the country, and that was assuming they were even still together-

She was jarred from her thoughts by a light tap on her forehead. She glared at Bahral, the only possible culprit, who raised his hands in a gesture of surrender.

“You were overthinking,” he said simply.

Ora sighed and rubbed at her temples. “Sorry. I’m just worried.”

Bahral waved dismissively. “Hey, don’t apologize. I’m worried too, but sitting around and letting it consume you doesn’t help anyone, right?”

Ora nodded, feeling calmer. “Right.”

They’d reached the end of the corridor by then. It finished in a door, similar to that of their cell, and Ora tested to see if it was locked. It wasn’t, and it ended up being much lighter than she expected. It swung completely open even with the slight pressure she put on it, sending her stumbling forward. Into empty air.

Bahral grabbed the back of her dress and yanked her back to the relative safety of the corridor.

Ora’s pulse was thrumming in her ears, and she couldn’t even form the words to properly thank Bahral for saving her.

He seemed to understand anyway, and gently guided her so she was standing behind him, before opening the door again.

He peered over the edge and whistled, impressed.

“That’s quite the drop.”

Ora let out a very undignified squeak, and Bahral gave her a sheepish look. 

“Right, sorry. It is though.” He shut the door. “Good news is, we’re over the forest, so we probably didn’t go very far horizontally.”

“And the bad news is, we’re far enough vertically for that to happen,” she said, gesturing at his eyes, “and my magic isn’t working, so we can’t get down.”

“Oh, you wouldn’t be able to do that anyway, sweetheart.”

Ora whipped around to find the source of the third voice. A tall, gangly man wearing a riotous assortment of mismatched colours, fabrics and styles, none of which seemed to fit him quite right had appeared behind them, presumably while they were looking outside. He was grinning so widely he looked nearly unhinged, and Ora leaned away from him involuntarily.

Once she’d gotten past the manic expression and the eyesore of an outfit, she recognized him as the man from the cliff, the one who’d ordered her to be shot. 

Bahral apparently recognized him as well, because Ora felt him tense behind her and hiss out a venomous “ _You_.”

“Yes, me!” The man replied, wholly unconcerned. He removed his hat (tall, orange, and with a green feather stuck in it) and gave them an exaggerated bow. “Jovrin, at your service!”

“At our service?” Bahral said skeptically. “If I remember correctly, you kidnapped and imprisoned us.” 

“Yes, yes,” Jovrin said dismissively, waving his hat, “it’s an expression. Technically, _you_ are in _my_ service.”

Ora could tell that Bahral didn’t like that answer, so she laid a hand on his arm, holding him back in spirit if nothing else.

“By what right?” she asked, forcing politeness into her tone.

Jovrin flicked his hat back onto his head. “Well, as your friend said, I kidnapped you. As such, you are, essentially, my property.”

“That’s not how _anything_ works!” Bahral exclaimed, and Jovrin’s grin hardened.

“Maybe not down there, but this is my domain, elf. I make the rules, and that’s one of them.” He rubbed his hands together, and a breeze whipped to life around them. The wind stung Ora’s eyes, so she closed them until it died down. When she opened them again, they were back in the cell.

“You made a valiant attempt, but the only way you’ll be allowed to leave is if you win the tournament.”

Ora heard Bahral mutter something that sounded like “of course there’s a tournament” but Jovrin didn’t appear to have noticed, so she didn’t say anything. 

“And how can we go about doing that?”

“You’ll be fighting other teams of two gladiators. To the death, of course, it’s no fun otherwise.”

Ora’s stomach turned over on itself, but she hid it with a forced smile. “Of course.”

Jovrin’s grin widened. “Oh, I like you. It’s a melee with…” he trailed off and counted on his fingers, “six other teams at the same time as you. No rules, but crowd’s favour has some sway, so be interesting.” He snapped his fingers, and Bahral’s axe appeared in his hand. He pointed it at the back wall of the cell. 

“That’ll disappear in a few minutes. When it does, the fight starts.” Jovrin tossed the axe to Bahral, who caught it. He started to walk toward the door, but paused right before opening it, clapping his hands sharply and turning to face them.

“Right! I nearly forgot to tell you.” He beamed. “If you try to run again, I’ll kill you myself.” He made a motion like pulling a loose thread, and Ora felt the air rush out of her lungs. Jovrin’s smile widened. 

“I hear suffocation is quite a terrible way to go, so I’d suggest you give it your all out there. Bye now!” He vanished into thin air, without so much as touching the door.

Bahral smiled a very strained smile. “Any chance your magic is back yet?”

Ora tried an “emra” again. Nothing.

Bahral exhaled and rolled his shoulders. “Good thing we spent all that time teaching you self-defense, huh?”

Ora didn’t even want to imagine what it would be like to go out there without that knowledge. She was panicking enough as it was.

She and Bahral stared at the wall for a few seconds before she spoke again.

“I don’t think I can… I don’t think I can hurt anyone out there. I mean, if they’re all like us, then they just want to make it out, and I can’t-” she couldn’t even finish the sentence but Bahral seemed to understand what she was trying to say anyway.

“Hey. We’ll figure out a way to get away, okay? We’ll stay on defense, and you use that brain to get us out of here.”

He squeezed Ora’s shoulder and smiled reassuringly, and she relaxed a bit.

Just in time, because he’d barely released her shoulder when the stones before them shimmered and vanished.

Bahral stepped forward onto the packed dirt floor of the arena, gently pushing Ora with him.

The arena itself wasn’t that large, a circle maybe twenty feet in diameter, but the roar of the gathered crowd more than made up for that. In raised stands around the entire perimeter sat more people than Ora had ever seen in one place, all yelling their encouragement or disapproval.

The sheer magnitude of it made her shrink back, taking an unconscious step closer to Bahral.

He slung an arm across her shoulders and squeezed, leaning close to her ear and whispering: “Focus on one person. It makes it easier.”

Ora followed his advice, scanning the crowd for a comforting–or at least non-threatening–face. She eventually landed on the area directly in front of them, a more lavish box with proper chairs instead of benches. On a dais in the center of it was a throne where Jovrin, in all his obnoxiously bright glory, reclined lazily. When he noticed Ora’s eyes on him, he smiled and waved, and she quickly found somewhere else to look.

To his left was a woman with a white hood over her hair, and the lower half of her face covered by a white cloth. She felt vaguely familiar, though between the distance and how little of her face was actually showing, it could be nothing more than a trick of the light.

Ora decided to take a look at their opponents, hoping against hope that she would find Ilei and Eju among them. Jovrin hadn’t mentioned anything, and she was sure Bahral would have let her know if he saw them amongst the contestants, but the hope remained until she’d finished looking at each of the other teams. There were five, and none of them contained a fairy, or a sword-wielding human.

“Welcome one and all!” Boomed Jovrin’s voice, magically amplified to be heard over the din of the crowd. “We have a fine selection of fighters for you today, from all over the great Isle of Sakaeli!” A cheer rose from the crowd, and Jovrin beamed. He was a good showman, Ora could admit that much. 

“Bah! You aren’t here to chat about them, are you?”

The crowd booed, and Jovrin laughed.

“Of course not! So let’s get things started, hm?”

The wall that had been the back of their cell materialized once again, cutting off their only escape route. Not that it mattered much anyway, since they couldn’t use it.

“Oh!” Jovrin winced dramatically. “It seems one of our teams decided to stay behind, so only six will be participating today.”

The crowd booed again.

“Come on now, we’ll still have a good time! Contestants!” he said, addressing those in the arena. “You’ve got some slack to pick up. Put on a good show, yeah? GO!”

Everything devolved into chaos.

Ora and Bahral were immediately charged by the pair closest on their left, a half-giant and a centaur. 

Bahral reacted quickly, pushing Ora close to the wall and placing himself in front of her. 

The other pair fought decently, but they still seemed to be recovering from the tranquilizer, if the way they kept tripping over themselves was any indication. Ora suspected it was the only reason Bahral had lasted this long. As good as he was, his opponents had both size and numbers on him, and they didn’t have a dead weight to guard.

She’d been trying her runes obsessively while keeping an eye on the fight’s progress, but they still weren’t doing anything.

While she was making another attempt at a “mahra”, someone grabbed the back of her dress and pulled her away from the wall. Ora squirmed and kicked her legs out behind her, but whoever had grabbed her was strong. She hated this, she hated being helpless, but she was pinned.

“Hey!” called her captor, and she recognized the centaur’s voice. Ora felt the point of a knife dig into her chest, and the centaur yelled again.

Bahral, who had managed to pin down the half-giant, turned to look at them, and his eyes widened in shock.

“Let him go, and she lives.”

Bahral hesitated, and the centaur raised her knife, pointing it straight at Ora’s heart. “One-”

The rest of her countdown was cut off by Jovrin’s voice echoing through the arena.

“Stop!”

The centaur turned her head in the direction of his voice, and Bahral took advantage of her distraction to leap over, knock the knife from her hand, and pull Ora from her grip.

Safely on her own two feet, Ora allowed herself to look over at the throne, and see what had managed to bring the mayhem to such a complete stop.

The throne had been overturned, and Jovrin had a sword against his throat. The woman in white was the one holding it, and she seemed to be telling him what to do.

Ora watched, awed, as a section of the arena wall folded detached itself and turned until it was horizontal, floating a few inches off the ground like a barge. 

“Any contestants who do not wish to partake in the tournament may board this, two at a time. You will be returned to the ground,” he said slowly, like he was repeating a line, and one he didn’t want to be saying. 

The centaur, without missing a beat, cantered over to the giant and helped him to his feet.

“Let’s go!”

Together, they made their way to the barge at top speed, clamoring with all the other unwilling gladiators for the first spot.

The woman in white leaned closer and whispered something else, and a stairway unfolded from the dais, leading down to the arena floor.

Through a sort of awkward backward shuffle, she managed to walk him down the stairs, toward Ora and Bahral, who’d hung back to avoid the crowd.

When they reached them, she maneuvered their position so she had a free hand, and used it to lower the scarf covering her face, just long enough for them to recognize her, and for her to mouth “Eju’s here too.”

Ora repressed the urge to smile and jump around, and kicked Bahral in the shin to make sure he did the same.

He kicked her back, lightly, a silent “I know, shut up”. 

Ilei whispered to Jovrin again, and he rolled his eyes before starting to shuffle off toward the wall-turned-barge, gesturing for Ora and Bahral to follow.

They did, and stood by, watching as the other teams were returned to the ground, two by two. 

Eju, or at least, a well covered fairy who Ora suspected was Eju, joined them about halfway through, and they didn’t look pleased.

After the final team, excluding them, had been lowered, Ilei gestured with her head for them to climb aboard. 

“What about you?” Ora asked as Bahral boosted her on and stepped up after her.

“Two at a time. It’s the most it can carry at once,” Jovrin said.

Ora looked at the trio of remaining people. There was no way Ilei would let Jovrin go until they were on the ground.

“I don’t count.” Jovrin said impatiently. “And can’t you fly?” he demanded, shooting a glare at Eju. 

“I _can_ , but do I _want_ to?” 

Jovrin sighed dramatically, and flicked his wrist, starting the wall on its slow descent to safety.

Ora stayed firmly in the middle, not yet fully recovered from her near-fall earlier.

They reached the ground after a few minutes, and found it surprisingly deserted. The other gladiators seemed to have decided that sticking around to see what happened wasn’t worth the risk of being recaptured. 

After dismounting, Ora stood next to Bahral and watched the wall climb back into the sky. 

Bahral seemed worried, jaw set and eyes–green again–hard as the wall slowly got smaller and smaller.

“What’s wrong?”

“Ilei’s terrified of heights, and I don’t see any situation where this goes well.”

Ora searched for something comforting to say, but came up empty. If Bahral had managed to be positive about them surviving a gladiatorial death tournament but couldn’t find a positive outcome for this, Ora doubted she’d be able to. 

Instead, she prayed to every god she could think of that her magic would come back soon.

They waited tensely for the wall to reappear. After a few minutes, it did, and Ora could vaguely see the three shapes of Ilei, Eju and Jovrin.

Things seemed fine for a little while, but suddenly, Ilei’s grip, for whatever reason, loosened, and Jovrin seized his opportunity to strike.

A blast of wind emanated from his entire body, throwing Ilei and Eju over the sides. Jovrin himself vanished, and the wall started to climb back toward his stronghold.

Bahral swore loudly, and Ora was tempted to do the same.

Eju would be fine, they could fly, but Ilei could not, and they’d been thrown in opposite directions. By the time Eju reached her, it would be too late.

Ora shut her eyes and willed every last dreg of magic, anything her body could produce, a blessing from a god or a spirit, everything she had, into a rune. 

“Tahira!”

When she opened her eyes, Ilei was in front of her.

Ora had seen her in plenty of terrifying situations, Ilei had never looked as scared as she did now. The white hood and scarf were whipping around her face, intermittently hiding her expression, but the fear in her eyes was burned into Ora’s brain, whether she could see it directly or not.

She grabbed Ilei’s hands and pulled her close, shouting another “Tahira!”, the sound ripped from her mouth by the wind. 

They appeared again on the ground. Ilei’s grip on Ora tightened so much that it hurt, and she let out a sound against Ora’s shoulder that sounded a lot like a sob. Ora rubbed her back, mumbling nonsense until she calmed down enough to let go.

“Sorry. I uh, really hate heights,” she scratched awkwardly at the back of her neck, looking at her feet. 

Ora frowned. “You don’t have to apologize for being afraid of things, Ilei.”

Ilei smiled softly, the sight making Ora’s stomach turn over in a not entirely unpleasant way, and opened her mouth to answer, but before she could, Eju flew over and smacked her upside the head.

“However, you do have to apologize for not sticking to the nakking plan!”

“That centaur was going to stab her!”

“Hey!” Bahral joined the conversation, sounding offended, “I would have gotten her!”

“It’s not that I don’t trust you, I just panicked!”

“You fight evil for a living! There’s no time for panic!”

Ora felt the tension slowly bleed from her body as they bickered. The four of them together again, as it should be, though she found her eyes drawn to Ilei a little more often than usual. 

It was probably nothing.


	15. Loyalties

***  
 _8 days earlier_  
***

The faded sign hanging from the facade proclaimed the building “The Bloody Boar”.

Ixaya and Saresh stood on either side of Katali. It might have been defensive, or it might have been to keep her from running away. She couldn’t tell.

“This is the best source of information in the city. Unfortunately, the owner and I had a bit of a disagreement, and Saresh and I have been banned. Luckily, that was before we met you.”

Ixaya passed her a bag. Its contents clattered together loudly, making Katali wince.

“Go in, find out everything you can about them. Especially the witch.” Ixaya picked at the binding around her wrist at the mention of her. Katali pretended not to notice, and nodded.

Katali opened the door and walked in, making her way to the bar, where a naga woman was eyeing her warily. 

“I want to speak to Arwyn,” she said, loud enough to be heard over the din.

“Can’t do that, sweetheart.” The bartender smiled a fake, fanged smile.

Katali returned it, and upended the bag onto the ground beside her. The bones knit themselves together as they fell from the bag, and the bartender found herself with the business end of a skeleton’s sword against her throat. She swallowed nervously and used her tail to knock on a trap door in the floor.

“Arwyn! You’ve got a visitor!”

The trap door opened and a man's head popped out.

“Tell them I'm- oh.” He took in the girl, the sword, and the skeleton. His eyes widened ever so slightly, and he sighed. 

“Send her down.” He vanished back underground, and Katali hopped over the bar, ordering the skeleton to follow her.

She descended through the trap door and landed on the ground. Arwyn was sitting on one barrel with his feet propped on another, looking wholly unconcerned.

“Necromancer, huh? I suppose it was about time for the next one.”

Katali didn’t feel the need to respond, so she didn’t.

“What do you know about Ora?”

Arwyn shrugged. “It’s a fairly common name. You’ll need to be specific.”

“Rune tattoos, travelling with two heroes and a fairy.”

“Right,” Arwyn said, as if he was just remembering her. “Sorry, don’t know anything.”

“We both know that’s not true. Tell me what you know.”

Arwyn swung his feet off the barrel and leaned toward her. “I’m not going to do that. Because I have a feeling you’re working for someone, and if I did know who Ora was, I’d side with her over them.”

Katali took a deep breath and squared her shoulders. She wasn’t particularly intimidating, but she knew what to say. Ixaya, as always, had come with a plan.

“You’re a smart man, Arwyn. You know I can’t touch you.” 

He raised a single eyebrow at her, enough to indicate that, yes, he did know, and he couldn’t tell why she was bringing it up. 

“You also know that the same can’t be said of your customers. Sure, you can protect them in here, but Kalassee’s a big place.” She was the one to lean forward this time, wearing her best imitation of Ixaya’s smile. “And I’m sure the guard would _love_ help clearing out some of the criminals.”

Arwyn’s jaw twitched, and Katali knew she’d won.

“She came in yesterday, asked about Ixaya. Got her village burned down, apparently. I don’t know anything else.”

Katali nodded. It would have to be enough.

“Thank you.”

Arwyn pointed at a door in the wall behind him. “You go out that way, and you don’t come back.”

Katali’s feet moved of their own accord, and she was outside before she could say anything else. 

Ixaya and Saresh were waiting for her. Apparently, they’d known about this exit.

“What’d he say?” Saresh asked, and Katali relayed what little information she’d gotten from Arwyn.

Ixaya hurled a “mahra” at one of the alley walls, her version of punching it.

She turned an accusatory look on Saresh. “I told you they didn’t find us by mistake. They’re after us.”

Saresh looked grim. “Guess so.”

“What are we going to do?” Katali asked timidly, but Ixaya, to her surprise, didn’t seem to mind the question.

She pulled a small vial from her satchel, and Katali recognized it as the blood from the big one, which Ixaya had drained from Saresh’s knives. 

Ixaya held it up to the light and smiled. “We’re going to find them first.”

***  
 _2 days earlier_  
***

The aftermath of the next fight with the heroes hadn’t been good for anyone.

Ixaya never took well to her plans failing, but this time was the worst Katali had ever seen.   
She’d flown into an unprecedented rage and taken out a sizeable number of trees around their new hideout as a result. When she’d finally calmed down, she’d called Katali and Saresh out of the abandoned cottage that had been serving as their shelter, and told them her plan.

“We’re going to kill them.”

Saresh had rubbed tiredly at his temples and sighed. “Any particular reason?”

“They made me angry, that’s reason enough!”

“No, it isn’t,” Saresh said reasonably. “Sure, they beat us in straight fights, but they’ve never caught us in the act. As long as we stay ahead-”

“We won’t,” Ixaya stated with certainty. “Ora has already improved since the last time, if we let them continue, they _will_ catch us.”

“Do we really have to-” Katali started, uncharacteristically bold. Despite the two years she’d spent with Ixaya and Saresh, she’d never killed anyone. At least, not that she knew of. The very thought of it made her stomach twist unpleasantly.

“Yes,” Ixaya said firmly. “They’re out for revenge. This won’t stop until one side is dead, and I’d rather it be them than us.”

Katali shrank back. She didn’t have anything else to say.

Saresh did. He always seemed to.

“Alright, so we’re killing them. How?”

Ixaya started to pace as she explained. “Do you know why we’ve failed every time so far?”

“Because they’re better fighters and they outnumber us?” Saresh tried, and Katali winced on his behalf, because the glare he received was scathing.

“ _No_ , it’s because we’re always the ones going to them. If we want to win, we need to be the ones choosing the time and place, not just following them around and hoping for an opportunity.”

“Great. I assume you’ve got a plan for that to happen?” 

“Of course, but we need to find a better battlefield.” She wrinkled her nose at the cottage and the peaceful forest surrounding it. 

“Fine,” Saresh said tiredly, rolling his shoulders and kicking at Katali so she’s stand up. “Where to?”

***  
 _1 day earlier_  
***

It took a day of hiking and the destruction of several more trees, but Ixaya had finally found her perfect battleground. It was an old fortress, partially carved into the side of a mountain and overlooking the same ravine they’d fought the heroes at the day before, albeit further North. The river below was definitely less friendly-looking here, all rocks and rapids.

Katali could understand why Ixaya liked it; it met all her terrain standards. There was, however, one small problem with the fortress. 

It was inhabited. 

Not the fortress itself, thankfully, but a village had popped up right beside it, which was less than ideal. 

When this was discovered, Katali had sighed (internally, showing any kind of weakness or frustration to Ixaya when she was like this was as good as signing your own death warrant) and prepared herself for another long day of walking.

Saresh had apparently done the same, because he started to pull Ixaya away from where she was secretly observing the villagers with a muttered “next one, Ix”.

She shrugged him off, but turned to face both of them anyway.

“No. I want this one.”

“There’s people living here. Someone’s going to warn them, or help them, and-”

“There’s people living here _now_ ,” Ixaya corrected. “But if there weren’t in, say, an hour, it would be perfect, wouldn’t it?”

It took a moment for realization to dawn on Saresh’s face, but when it did it was shortly followed by a grin. Then, as expected, by his knives.

“Katali, go find another body or two. Can’t just be the two of us having fun, right?”

Ixaya was smiling, and maybe to an outsider it looked like an invitation, but Katali saw the hardness in Ixaya’s eyes, and took the comment for what it was. A test, and one she couldn’t afford to fail.

“Give me ten minutes.”

***

The fight was short and bloody, and couldn’t even be counted as a fight, really. It was a massacre.

Katali managed to avoid the worst of it, since Ixaya and Saresh were more than willing to take care of everyone themselves, but she still saw, and she didn’t think she’d be able to forget.

Ixaya kicked away the hands of a man who was pleading for his life, and cast a disinterested “khana” on him. He stopped moving.

Ixaya brushed her hands off on her cloak, despite not having touched anything, and looked out over the carnage that had once been the village. 

“Katali,” she said, and Katali reluctantly looked away from the ground, where she had been focusing her eyes so she wouldn’t vomit.

“I just saw something move over there. Take care of it, would you?”

Katali nodded, and started the walk over, flanked by two of her soldiers. When she arrived to the area Ixaya had indicated, she couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary. Except… no, there it was. A slight movement in a partially hidden corner behind a house. Katali made her way over, and found herself facing a boy. He was maybe twelve, — it was difficult to tell with fauns — shaking like a leaf and standing protectively in front of another boy, this one maybe five or six. They had the same eyes.

“I won’t let you hurt him!” said the older one, voice quivering. His brother was clinging to the back of his shirt.

Katali stared at them for a long moment, then extended a hand to the skeleton on her left. 

“Knife.”

It passed her the dagger it had been holding, and she turned it over once in her hands. Then she took a deep breath and slashed her left bicep with it, deep enough to hurt, but not enough to cause any permanent damage. Then she wiped the blood on her cloak and crouched down in front of the boy, extending the knife to him, handle first.

“You take this,” she said urgently, “and you run. You get far away from here, and don’t come back. Do you understand?”

He nodded. 

“Good. Go!”

The boy grabbed his brother by the hand and took off toward the woods.

She turned to the now weaponless skeleton. 

“Follow them for twenty minutes. After that, your work is done.”

It set off after them at the closest thing to a run it could manage. Katali took the remaining one and headed back to where Ixaya was waiting. Saresh had joined her while Katali was gone, and was meticulously cleaning his knives.

“Well?” Ixaya asked impatiently.

Katali showed her injured arm. “It was a kid. Jumped out with a kitchen knife and took me by surprise, then ran off. I sent the other one after him,” she said, pointing at the remaining soldier.

Ixaya’s lip curled with displeasure. “Do you remember the first thing I ever taught you, Katali?”

“The only enemy you can trust is a dead one,” Katali answered automatically, even as dread pooled in her stomach. “But I sent a soldier after him, we don’t know-”

“That’s right,” Ixaya said coldly. “We don’t know anything.” She paused. “No, I take that back. We do know one thing.” She leaned in to Katali’s face and traced something on her good arm. “You failed. Kahye.”

Searing pain spread from the rune Ixaya had drawn on her arm, the force of it making Katali’s knees give out as silent tears streamed down her face. She curled in on herself, but it didn’t help. Ixaya looked down at her with an almost bored expression on her face.

Katali heard Saresh sigh. “Ix. Come on, that’s enough.” 

Ixaya tilted her head to the side and considered her for a moment longer. “We do need to get moving. Mezye.” 

As quickly as it had come, the pain stopped. Everywhere except her left arm, which still throbbed. She’d probably made it worse when she fell on it.

When Katali looked up again, Ixaya was already gone, but Saresh was still there. He stood by, waiting, but didn’t offer a hand up.

Katali forced herself to her feet, and he silently handed her a cloth to tie over her wound. They both knew Ixaya wouldn’t heal it. She wasn’t good at healing to begin with, but she flatly refused to use what little she did know on anyone but herself and Saresh.

“Thanks.” 

It was quiet, so Ixaya wouldn’t hear. 

“Can’t have it getting infected. Not with what she’s got planned.”

Katali looked at Ixaya up ahead, who had stopped to wait for them, glaring murderously. Katali tied the cloth herself. That would be too much to ask for, from either of them.

“Yeah, I guess not.”

***  
 _All caught up_  
***

Pilenya was nervous. She honestly couldn’t say why, but she was. 

Uvnir looked up from where he’d been starting the fire and sighed at her.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

“Your tail’s twitching.”

Pilenya twisted to look at her tail, which was flicking nervously. She glared at it, and muttered a tired: “Traitor.”

Uvnir laughed. “Relax. We got away, and we know not to go near there again. Besides, I doubt Jovrin’s going to try and take anyone for a while now, with how badly today went for him.”

Pilenya wasn’t particularly reassured, but she smiled anyway and folded her legs under her body, sinking down next to the fire.

“So what’s the plan for tomorrow?” she asked in an effort to change the subject and distract herself from her unease.

“Head back to Tuldor and beg the general for forgiveness,” Uvnir said dryly, and Pilenya laughed.

“Come on, you don’t really think he’s going to blame us for getting kidnapped, do you?”

“You’re soldiers in the Tulodrian army,” Uvnir said in a gravelly imitation of the general’s voice, “you should have been able to fight off an air elemental and his guards without a problem.”

Pilenya muffled her laughter with a hand over her mouth and shoved Uvnir playfully in the shoulder. He was laughing too, settled back on his elbows and watching the fire. Relaxed.

Pilenya gave herself a firm mental shake. If Uvnir wasn’t worried, she shouldn’t be. He was her partner, and they had to trust each other. 

“You take first watch. I’m going to bed.”

He nodded, and she settled down as best she could, falling asleep remarkably quickly, despite the lingering nerves.

***

“Pilenya.”

Pilenya blinked herself awake. The moon had barely moved since she’d fallen asleep, so it wasn’t time to switch watches. Something must be wrong.

She grabbed her lance from beside her and got to her feet.

“What happened?” she whispered urgently.

“I heard something moving,” Uvnir muttered back, and they shifted so they were standing back to back, watching each other’s blind spots.

Pilenya’s tail was twitching again.

They stood like that for a while, long enough that Pilenya was willing to believe it was nothing. Then, there was a sudden burst of movement, and before she could react, they were surrounded.

A teenager in a hooded cloak, a woman with a fireball in her palm, and a veritable battalion of skeletons on her side.

“Uvnir, what’ve you got?”

There was no answer, and Pilenya chanced a quick look over her shoulder. Uvnir was looking down at her with panic in his eyes. There was a man on his shoulders, holding two curved knives over his throat.

“Sorry sweetheart,” he said with a wicked grin, “he can’t answer you.”

The woman with the fireball—a witch, presumably—strode into Pilenya’s field of vision.

“We’ll let him live, but we need you to do something for us.”

If they could corner and incapacitate two fully trained soldiers with virtually no trouble, Pilenya couldn’t imagine what they’d need her help with, but another look at Uvnir and she knew she was going to find out.

“What do you need me to do?”

The witch smiled. 

“You’re a hero, aren’t you?”

“A soldier, yes.” 

“And what do heroes like more than anything in the world?” 

Pilenya had a feeling it was a rhetorical question, so she didn’t answer.

“Helping someone in need.” The witch looked at Uvnir and feigned shock. “Well, it seems you’ve got someone in need, and it just so happens that we have a group of heroes who would be _perfect_ for the job.” She reached into a bag and pulled something out. She tossed it to Pilenya, who caught it. 

It was a piece of string with a bit of wood at the end, like a necklace. It had the rune for “reveal” painted on it in what Pilenya suspected was blood.

“Find them, and bring them to the fortress in the mountain. You have two days.”

Pilenya slipped the tracking charm over her neck and gave Uvnir one last look.

“What are you waiting for?” the witch snapped impatiently. “Go!”

Pilenya, to her great shame, did.


	16. Pilenya

Despite their impromptu detour the previous day, the group had managed to make decent headway toward Tuldor. It probably helped that the detour had been primarily horizontal. 

Their route had taken them out of the forest and into an area that was more of a plain, which made walking easier. It also made it easier to tell when something was approaching, which was why Bahral warned them about someone coming toward them on horseback a whole ten minutes before they arrived. 

After a quick discussion, they opted not to run, but the knights drew their weapons, and Ora prepared herself to fight back magically if it proved necessary. She looked over at Eju, worried that they didn’t have any way to defend themselves, and found that they had drawn a dagger. Ora was fairly certain she’d never seen it before, and it definitely wasn’t the same one they’d used to free her in Kuya’s cave. 

Ora raised a questioning eyebrow at Eju and the knife. They mouthed “stole it”, then gave her a thumbs-up, as though that didn’t raise far more questions than it answered.

Ora didn’t have time to ask any of them, however, because the mysterious rider had arrived. As it turned out, they weren’t a rider at all, but a centaur, and they weren’t mysterious either. She was the one who’d attacked Ora in the arena yesterday.

She seemed to recognize them too, if the way her eyes widened and she stumbled back a few steps was any indication.

Bahral stepped toward her, eyes hard and axe pointed at her chest. “What do you want?”

The centaur pulled a lance from her back, and the whole group tensed for a fight. However, rather than turn it on them, she dropped it on the ground beside her and raised her arms in surrender.

“My name is Pilenya Danare. I’m a soldier in the Tuldorian army. I came to ask you for help.”

“Why should we do that?” Ora asked, trying not to sound accusatory. She suspected she failed. To be fair, she quite disliked her life being used as a bargaining chip.

Pilenya took a deep breath. “My friend Uvnir—you saw him yesterday too—got kidnapped by bandits. They said they’ll kill him if I don’t pay ransom and there’s too many for me to take on on my own.”

Ilei shifted her weight to one hip. “Couldn’t you get someone from the army to help? Or, hells, why not the whole army?”

Pilenya laughed bitterly. “What do you think I am, a general? Besides, it takes two days to get to Tuldor, and they gave me two to pay.”

“Maybe pay them?” Eju suggested.

Pilenya pawed at the ground, and her tail swished frustratedly behind her. “You don’t join the army to make money. Either I break him out, or he dies.” She bowed her head. “I’m sorry about yesterday, but I wanted to live, and to keep my friend safe.”

Ora knew without looking that Ilei had forgiven everything the second Pilenya had finished her sentence, and Ora couldn’t bring herself to begrudge someone trying to get out of a bad situation the only way they knew how. Even Bahral seemed to have relaxed a bit, and Ora doubted Eju had cared very much to begin with. Nonetheless, she didn’t feel it was right to make this call without asking the others.

“Can you give us a moment?” she asked with a diplomatic smile. Pilenya nodded and walked a little ways away.

“I think we should help her,” Ilei said as soon as Pilenya was out of earshot. Ora’s smile turned more genuine at the statement. If nothing else, Ilei’s inherent need to help others was a constant in her life.

“I agree.” 

Bahral still didn’t look completely convinced, but Eju chimed in before he could say anything.

“If she’s in the Tuldorian army, she’s pretty likely to know about Ixaya, if anyone from Tuldor does.”

Ora hadn’t even considered that, but they were probably right. Information about someone that dangerous would probably get out fairly quickly, especially to those defending the city.

“Bahral?”

He paused before answering. “If she tries to hurt any of you again, she’s gone.”

“Of course,” Ora reassured. “So, we’re doing this then?”

The others nodded, and she called out to the soldier, who trotted over.

“We’ll help you. Lead the way.” 

Pilenya thanked them, and knelt to pick up her lance, swinging it back into its holster before standing.

Everyone else put their weapons away.

“Where did you get that dagger?” Pilenya asked Eju, and they gave her a blank look.

“I found it.”

“Are you accusing them of something?” Bahral snapped, and Ilei grabbed his elbow, a silent warning.

Pilenya took a step away from him. “Nothing like that. I was just curious, since it’s standard issue for Tuldorian soldiers. See, I have mine right-” she reached for a scabbard near her hips, but came away empty-handed and with a puzzled expression on her face, “- here. Huh, I must’ve lost it yesterday.”

Ora glared at Eju, who shrugged. Bahral sighed and Ilei patted him on the shoulder.

“We should probably get going.” Ora suggested, before Pilenya could put the pieces together. She would definitely make Eju return it later, but for the moment they had to get moving.

“Right.” Pilenya started off in the direction she had come. “They’ve set up in a fortress this way. At your pace it should take about a day.”

“How long did it take you to get here?” Eju asked, probably trying to calculate how long they had before the bandits’ time limit was up.

“Five hours?” she said uncertainly. “I ran most of the way, and they didn’t take him at the fortress, it’s just where they told me to meet them.”

“How many were there?” Bahral, this time.

“Three.”

An unconscious shudder went through the group. It was a coincidence, surely.

Ilei looked surprised. “And they managed to take on two trained soldiers?” 

Pilenya winced. “Kind of embarrassing, huh?”

No one answered, which Ora was grateful for. She loved her friends, but tact wasn’t exactly a strength of theirs.

“Do you have any idea of their abilities?”

Pilenya paused to think about it. “At least one of them had magic, and they all looked pretty human, but it was dark and I’ve never been great with picking up on glamours. It’s more Uvnir’s thing.” Pilenya’s gaze went distant at the mention of her friend, and Ora felt a pang of sympathy stab through her. She didn’t have to imagine what being in that situation was like, and it wasn’t something she ever wanted to feel again.

She tried to pat Pilenya on the shoulder, but even on her toes, she was too short, so she settled for her elbow.

“We’ll get him back.”

Pilenya let out a shuddery breath and smiled sadly. “I hope so.”

***

“I want the one with the sword, this time.” Saresh said from where he was lounging on an ornate chair. Katali had a feeling it had been a throne, once. Now it had a street-rat-turned-murderer lying across it and picking his nails with a knife.

“She was good,” Katali said. She had been. There was still a bump on the back of her head from when she’d been hit with her sword.

“And she seems more my style, you know?” Saresh sat up a bit, pointing his knife at Katali to emphasize the point. “The big guy was still fun, obviously, but he was all force. I like some grace in my fights.” He seemed to consider flopping back, but an idea struck him before he did. “Oooh, you should find a bear for him to fight! Or a giant boar.”

“That could be fun,” Katali said indulgently. The nausea clawing at her insides said otherwise, but she ignored it. “What about the fairy?”

Saresh shrugged. “I don’t really care.” He did flop back, this time, absently twisting the knife as he thought. “Can we even call it a fairy anymore? Not like it has magic or anything.”

Katali shifted uncomfortably from her position on the floor. 

“I can take them too.”

“Fine by me.”

They sat in awkward silence for a few moments.

Finally, Saresh let out a loud, dramatic sigh.

“It’s been, like, an hour. She should be done.”

“Maybe she got distracted,” Katali suggested. Not that Ixaya ever got distracted, but it was easier than saying she was probably enjoying tormenting their captive so much that she’d lost track of time.

Saresh rolled his eyes. “By _what_? It’s not like he can tell us anything we don’t know.”

Katali decided not to answer. She sometimes wondered how Saresh could deal with his sister, but occasionally she went so far as to wonder whether or not he realized how bad she was. Or if he even cared. 

“Whatever. Wanna go find something to eat?” 

Katali shook her head. Saresh coming and going as he saw fit was expected at this point, but if she left without warning, even if it was for a valid reason, Ixaya would be furious.

“You go ahead. I’ll tell her where you went.”

Saresh rolled off the chair and stretched. “Suit yourself. I’ll be back in a bit.”

Katali relaxed a bit when he left, but it didn’t last. Without the sounds of Saresh talking or moving around in the chair, she could faintly hear Ixaya and the soldier—Uvnir, she reminded herself. The other one had called him Uvnir. 

 

It was harder, when she knew the names of whoever their chosen targets were. It made it feel real.

As if to underscore this, there was a sharp groan, louder than the others, followed by Ixaya’s voice. Katali couldn’t make out the words, but the tone made it clear that she was sneering.

There was the sound of a door opening and closing, then footsteps on stone, until Ixaya appeared in one of the doorways dotting the main hall, studying a fresh stain on her dress with distaste.

Her eyes passed right over Katali, but she registered the empty chair and frowned.

“Where’s Saresh?”

“He went to find food,” Katali answered quickly, and Ixaya sniffed.

“I suppose it was only a matter of time.” She looked around at the hall, like she hadn’t already gone over it with meticulous attention when they first arrived. “He didn’t know anything useful, anyway. Saw Ora and the elf in a tournament, but they ended up breaking out before anything could happen.”

Katali frowned. “Does that mean they’re separated?”

Ixaya scoffed. “Hardly. The fairy and the other knight were the ones who organized the breakout.”

Katali bit her lip, uncertain. An unusually tall elf with an axe and a woman with rune tattoos were hard to miss, but the other two members of the party were far more generic looking. It was entirely possible that Uvnir had made a mistake. Despite not voicing any of her thoughts aloud, Ixaya seemed to pick up on her unease and snapped:

“Fairies don’t work in teams. And he said the knight’s sword was elf-made.”

That was slightly more compelling evidence, so Katali didn’t argue the point further. Not that she’d argued it to begin with, but she was extra careful to hide any worry.

“How long has he been gone?” Ixaya asked after a few minutes of silence, looking at the front entrance with detached concern.

“He left about a minute before you came upstairs, so not long.”

"Go see if you can find skeletons nearby. We don’t know when they’re getting here, and I don’t want you to be unprepared when they arrive.”

Katali nodded and stood, wincing slightly as her body complained about sitting on the stone floor for so long without moving. 

She would have to go through the village to get to the woods, which she wasn’t excited about, but it wasn’t like she had much of a choice.

After going through the main entrance, she picked her way along the outer wall, sticking as close to it as possible. She’d nearly fallen into the ravine on the way up, and it wasn’t an experience she was anxious to repeat.

She ran in to Saresh at the point where the path to the entrance became solid ground. His arms were full of various wares, all of which looked local. He knocked an apple off the top of the pile with his chin, and Katali caught it. She wasn’t sure if she’d be getting anything else, but the fact that he’d given her something at all was appreciated.

She nodded thanks and slipped past him, continuing her route to the village. It smelled strongly of lemongrass, thanks to the incense Ixaya had set burning around the perimeter, to mask the scent of Katali’s magic.

It was eerie in its emptiness, like all the sound had been sucked out of the world. She picked up the pace, trying to get through and into the much safer and more familiar woods as quickly as possible.

“Hey!”

Katali turned around in surprise. The voice didn’t belong to Ixaya or Saresh, and if anyone else was here and found them out, they were done for.

The source of the voice was a short woman in her thirties, with the horns and lower body that designated her as a faun.

She hurried over to Katali and tried to grab her hands, but phased right through them.

_No._

The woman—the ghost— didn’t seem to notice.

“Oh, thank the gods. I tried to talk to that boy, but I don’t think he heard me.”

He couldn’t have, and Katali was almost thankful for that. There was no way that conversation would have gone well.

“I’m looking for my sons, you see. I’ve searched the whole village, but I can’t find them anywhere.”

Katali was having trouble breathing. Now that she thought about it, she could see the resemblance between the ghost and the two boys she’d helped escape. Vainly, she hoped that their father had somehow made it out as well, or that they had family elsewhere. It wasn’t likely.

“- and I need to know where they are. I have to find them.” The woman was getting agitated now, flickering in and out of visibility and wringing her hands. 

Katali needed to fix this, but she couldn’t think of how. She couldn’t tell the truth, not all of it, anyway, as that might make things worse, but every second she hesitated, the ghost’s movements grew more stressed and erratic.

“They got away,” she said, finally. “I ran into them a little ways off and came back to investigate. They’re safe.”

The ghost form settled and stilled, and she made another grab for Katali’s hands. 

“Thank you, oh thank you.” Tears were shimmering in the corner of her eyes. 

_Don’t thank me, please don’t, I don’t deserve it_ , Katali thought desperately, barely resisting the urge to scream, or start crying herself.

By the time she’d calmed her internal turmoil enough to respond, the ghost had disappeared. 

Katali sank to the ground, feeling drained. She took a few deep breaths, trying to regain control of herself.

It wasn’t working very well.

She dug her hands into the ground and shut her eyes, trying and failing to fight back tears. 

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, though she wasn’t quite sure who she was talking to, “I’m so sorry.”

***

“A _battalion_?” Ilei asked incredulously, and Pilenya laughed.

“Yup! Still not sure how the brutes managed to coordinate for so long, but it was a pretty intense fight.”

The group had set up camp for the night, and Pilenya was regaling them with stories from her time in the army while Ora made dinner.

She’d found Pilenya to be quite good company so far, and even Bahral had warmed up to her eventually.

Nevertheless, she had an underlying tension to her, like she expected something to jump out and attack them at any given moment. Ora could understand that, given everything she’d been through in the past few days. It must put quite a strain on a person, even an experienced soldier.

Ora started serving out food, stifling a giggle when she heard Ilei still muttering something about trolls and battalions when she handed her her plate.

She took a seat between Ilei and Eju, who had forfeited their portion to Pilenya, since they didn’t technically have to eat. 

They looked longingly at Pilenya’s dinner and sighed.

“Oh, the sacrifices we heroes must make.”

Pilenya looked at them guiltily. “We could split it, I really don’t mind-”

“Nonsense!” Ora said with a smile, waving off Pilenya’s protestations.

Once she had (reluctantly) let it go, Ora grabbed Eju by the collar and whispered harshly in their ear.

“Pull something like that again and I tell her where you got the dagger.”

Their eyes widened slightly, and Ora, satisfied that they would behave themselves for a little bit longer, released them and got back to her food.

They sat up for a little while even once everyone had finished eating, sharing more stories. Ora didn’t have many to contribute, but a quick anecdote about some of Kiri’s antics every once in a while was enough to keep her involved in the conversation, and they usually got a laugh or two.

Eventually though, it was time to sleep. Pilenya tried to argue that she should take first watch, since she was imposing on them, but Ora quickly explained that that role fell on Eju, since they didn’t sleep. 

Eju looked like they were about to make a comment, but Ora glared at them and they wisely held their tongue.

***

The next morning, Ora was surprised to find Pilenya already awake, sitting and talking with Eju.

“Good morning.” 

Pilenya turned and smiled at her. It looked strained.

“Mornin’.”

“Why are you up so early?” she asked gently, curious but not wanting to pry.

“Ah,” Pilenya said awkwardly, “didn’t sleep well. Figured I’d keep them company.” She paused for a moment, then brightened slightly. “I did find my knife though! It was in my pack.”

Ora shook her head fondly at Eju, who was pointedly not looking at her. There was an entirely different knife in a scabbard at their hip. Ora decided, for everyone’s sake, not to bother asking.

Ilei and Bahral woke up a little later, and after they’d eaten, they headed off. The mood was a bit darker today, with the threat of facing the bandits looming nearer. Pilenya especially seemed on edge, tail flicking as she alternated between walking with them and running ahead to scout.

It only took them an hour to be near enough to the fortress to see it, and another hour after that to arrive at the village neighboring it.

It was clear there’d been an attack here. Everyone looked grim, and Pilenya seemed like she was going to be sick.

Eju flew up and clapped her on the shoulder. “We’ll get them,” they promised fiercely, glaring at the fortress with typical Eju-esque intensity.

Pilenya exhaled shakily and nodded, and started picking her way through to the path that led to the fortress.

It was a tight squeeze, especially for Pilenya, who came way too close to slipping more than once.

They all made it in one piece, however, stepping through the large double doors and into an entrance hall, which was entirely empty.

“Hello?” Pilenya called, voice echoing off the stone walls, “It’s me, I have what you asked for!”

One of the doors leading off of the main hall opened, and Ixaya stepped out.

She was smiling.

“Oh, well done. I wasn’t sure you could do it.”

“What’s she talking about?” Ora asked, looking at Pilenya. She had her eyes rooted to the floor. “Pilenya, what’s going on?”

Ixaya let out what might have been a giggle, if it didn’t grate like a knife against rock on Ora’s nerves. “She didn’t tell you? This is even better than I thought it would be. Saresh!” 

Her brother emerged from yet another room, dragging a mostly unconscious and very beat-up half-giant behind him. 

Pilenya took an unconscious step forward with a broken cry of “Uvnir!”, and everything clicked into place.

“You lied,” Bahral said darkly, voicing Ora’s thoughts before she had the chance to.

“I’m sorry,” Pilenya said desperately, “I didn’t want to but it was the only way to save him-”

Ixaya made an exaggeratedly sympathetic face. “Aw, that’s where you’re wrong.” She made a slight gesture at Saresh, and he drew a knife across Uvnir’s throat.

Pilenya screamed wordlessly and pulled her lance from its holster. Ilei made a vain attempt to stop her, but Pilenya charged forward without so much as acknowledging her, straight at Ixaya.

She dodged the attack, and Pilenya halted her momentum right before she crashed into the opposite wall, spinning and preparing to charge again.

Ixaya raised one hand and drew an all too familiar rune in the air. Before Ora could call out a warning, the word to accompany it left Ixaya’s mouth.

“Khana.”

Pilenya dropped to the ground beside her friend, and Ora let out a strangled noise that might have been a sob.

Ixaya brushed her hands off on her dress and turned to face them, a cruel grin marring her face.

“Who’s next?”


	17. Mezye

“You’re insane,” Ilei said, somewhere between incredulous and outraged. 

Ixaya rolled her eyes. “Saresh, you wanted that one, right?”

Saresh grinned and wiped one of his knives off on his tunic. “I did.”

“Go on, then.”

Saresh ran at Ilei, moving so quickly that she barely drew her sword in time to block his attack. 

After that, several things happened in quick succession. 

First, Ora took a step toward Ixaya, hand raised like she was about to cast something. Second, another door opened, and something pulled Eju and Bahral into it. Third, Saresh managed to force Ilei out the front doors.

She sort of lost track of everyone after that.

***

Really, finding the catacombs had been a stroke of luck. 

The forest had been mostly devoid of anything useful, and Ixaya had been starting to lose patience, suggesting with less and less subtlety that Katali just use the wreckage from the village, since it was convenient.

The very idea of it made Katali feel sick, but she couldn’t say it outright, and she’d been beginning to lose hope when Saresh had come back from exploring the castle basement with news of a crypt. A full crypt, with an entire army for Katali to use.

With surprise on her side, she’d managed to grab her two charges with little difficulty, with the help of two of the largest soldiers. They weren’t human, she knew that much, but they felt similar, magically. She suspected half-giants, but she tried not to think about that. 

The elf and the fairy were thrown unceremoniously down the stairs, landing with pained noises on the marble floor of the crypt.

Katali could see them, hidden as she was in the shadows behind one of the tombs, but they couldn’t see her. They didn’t even bother looking for her, too occupied by the soldiers who’d grabbed them.

Controlling two skeletons this large in active combat was testing her limits already, so most of the others remained unused, but she hoped it would be over quickly nonetheless. 

This hope seemed somewhat vain, because no sooner had the thought crossed her mind that the large one had his axe out and embedded in the skull of the skeleton that had grabbed him.

The rest of it collapsed to the floor, lifeless bones once again. Katali reanimated it, but without the skull it seemed to have trouble navigating, and any attempted attacks were parried easily.

Well, at least he was distracted for the moment. She turned her attention to the fairy, who, if nothing else, ought to be easier work.

Unfortunately, they had acquired a new weapon since she’d last seen them, and they seemed to have gained some level of competence, if nothing else. They were fast, slicing through joints and forcing the skeleton to knit itself back together regularly. Their technique reminded Katali of the knight with the sword.

The pair wasn’t winning, certainly, but they weren’t losing either, and they could probably keep this up longer than her magic would last. She needed something bigger, some kind of finishing blow…

Katali wasn’t sure who had owned the fortress originally, but they’d had a fierce army, based on what she’d seen. And the crown jewel was probably exactly what she needed to end this fight.

While her opponents were distracted, she made her way as quickly and quietly as possible to the other end of the crypt, and crouched down next to a large pit that had been dug in the floor. 

“WHY DON’T YOU JUST STAY DOWN- huh,” she heard as she dropped her control over the two half-giants to focus on the thing in the pit. 

It was slow to rise, thousands of vertebra flying together as the glowing white of her magic coaxed it back to semi-life. The bones clicked against each other as it pulled itself from the pit. Katali dropped to her knees, unable to stand and control it at the same time. Her injured arm was throbbing.

“Is that a nakking _hydra_?!” the fairy cried. 

“I think so.” 

“Have you ever fought one of these before?”

“No. Have you?”

“No.”

“Fantastic.”

Katali’s vision was swimming in and out of focus as she tried to maintain her power over the hydra skeleton. It wasn’t fighting her, which happened with more death-linked creatures, but it was big and ungainly and she had to finish this soon or she wouldn’t be able to.

“I’ll distract it, you try and find the necromancer!” 

Katali heard the scrape of metal against stone as the elf picked up his axe and made good on his threat, slicing through the many heads with abandon. Not a technique you generally wanted to take with a hydra, but the “heads growing back double” thing doesn’t work if it’s already dead. It was about as effective though, with Katali reattaching the heads as soon as they were felled.

The fairy managed to weave their way through the heads and out of the hydra’s range, hovering up near the ceiling of the crypt and scanning for Katali. She couldn’t move and maintain command of the hydra, so she just had to hope she was well hidden enough that they couldn’t see her from above.

As she thought that, the elf misjudged a swing and was bitten by one of the hydra heads. They weren’t venomous anymore, but the teeth were still intact, and it must’ve hurt a lot.

He swore loudly and chopped off the offending head, buying himself a few seconds to regroup. 

“Anything?”

“It’s too dark in here, I can’t see her!”

The elf swore again, falling back a step as some of the heads went after his injured arm. He was nearly against one of the walls, and his arm was bleeding heavily. Elves were sturdier than humans, and the wound definitely wasn’t going to kill him, but it was slowing him down, and that alone might be enough.

“Scan wider!” he yelled, crouching and rolling under a tangle of necks to try and get closer to the body.

The fairy did as he asked, flying a larger perimeter to try and see in the further corners. Katali held her breath and stayed as still as possible. 

“I still can’t find h- Bahral!”

Katali’s attention turned from the fairy to the fight, just in time to see the hydra get in a lucky hit with its tail that sent the elf —Bahral, he had a name now, oh gods— flying into the far wall. 

He hit back-first and sank to the floor, unmoving. There was a trickle of blood coming from the corner of his mouth.

The fairy’s circling stopped as they flew back to Bahral and crouched beside him, shaking his shoulder desperately as the hydra picked its way through the tombs to them.

“Come on you big oaf, get up!” 

He wasn’t responding, and the hydra was getting closer.

The fairy changed tactics, grabbing onto his arm and trying to drag him out of danger, but he was three times their size and they couldn’t get him to budge. They gave up and stood in front of him, protectively, knife out. 

Katali could see, even through her haze of exhaustion and adrenaline, that they didn’t think they were going to win. 

“Your master’s a coward, isn’t she?” they said, addressing the approaching hydra. It was a ridiculous tactic. Alive or dead, hydras didn’t understand reason, there was no reason to try and speak to it.

But Katali. Katali could understand.

And they were right. She’d been so afraid of what Ixaya would do to her if she didn’t listen that she might have just killed someone.

The hydra clattered against the stones, the sound of its collapse echoing against the stone walls of the catacombs. 

There was another exit, underground tunnels that led out of the fortress. She ran to one of the entrances and disappeared inside. 

Maybe she couldn’t stop being a coward all at once, but this, at least, was a start.

***

“I was right. You _are_ fun.”

Ilei didn’t dignify that with a response, parrying Saresh’s attacks as he tried to force her toward the edge of the cliff.

He was good, and she needed to concentrate. Her sword had better power and more reach than his knives, but he had two weapons, and that gave him maneuverability, which he was taking full advantage of. That, and he seemed to have no qualms about killing her.

Call her an idealist, but Ilei would prefer to make it through this fight without casualties on either side.

She feinted left, and Saresh fell for it, giving her enough of an opening to aim a kick at his knees and send him to the ground. 

It wouldn’t last for long, so she ran for the door. She could hear the sound of yelling and explosions within the castle, the telltale signs of a magical fight, so going inside wasn’t an option, but there was a set of outdoor stairs leading to the battlements. High ground was usually a good resource, so she ran for them while Saresh was regaining his balance. 

She made it onto the first step just in time, turning to face Saresh and barely dodging a slash that would have cut her throat.

“How long’ve you been a knight?” Saresh asked, continuing to attack and forcing Ilei to back up the stairs.

The question was so casual and so out of place that Ilei nearly laughed. Instead, she retorted:

“How long have you been a murderer?”

“Four years, but I’ve been a criminal for twenty,” he answered, aiming a slice at her knees and making Ilei dance up another few steps to avoid it.

Ilei was surprised he’d answered, though she supposed she shouldn’t be. He’d asked first, after all.

“Why?” she asked, without fully intending to.

Saresh laughed. “It’s fun, and it’s not like I had much say in the matter.”

“Ixaya?”

“Well, it was her idea, but there’s only so many ways a street rat can turn out anyway.”

They were still climbing higher, and they’d soon reach the battlement proper, but Ilei was trying very hard to avoid thinking about that. Between the sword fight and the bizarrely casual conversation, she thought she was doing quite a good job.

“You see, I disagree,” Ilei said, nearly slipping as she took the final upward step onto the battlement.

“Twenty gold says you have a family. Until you know what it’s like to grow up without one, you don’t get to preach morality,” Saresh snapped, losing his open demeanor for something more fierce.

Ilei thought of Ora, of the cold, tense atmosphere in General Nurhail’s house the entire time they were there. That was all she’d known, but she’d rejected what he’d wanted her to be. It wasn’t Ilei’s place to share that, though, so she went with an anecdote of her own.

“I grew up on a farm in the middle of nowhere,” Ilei answered between harsh breaths, the sudden mount in intensity making it more difficult to maintain a conversation, “and I still became a knight. You always have a choice.”

Saresh growled, twisting his knives in a new move that sent Ilei’s sword flying out her grip. It clattered to the ground a few feet away, farther than she could reach before she’d need it again.

She raised her arms on instinct, trusting the leather guards on her forearms to protect her while she tried to disarm Saresh or get her own weapon back.

They did their job in that they blocked the slash that would’ve killed her, but Saresh’s second knife struck home, carving a gash from her temple to her jaw.

It burned, but it wasn’t her first time being stabbed, so she grit her teeth and dodged the next strike, crouching down and knocking her shoulder into his knees. He dropped to the ground beside her, and she managed to pin him down by the wrists and take his knives.

He thrashed under her, but she was heavier than he was, and she was used to holding Bahral down. Speed doesn’t help you much when you can’t move, and honestly, Saresh was kind of scrawny.

“Calm down,” she told him sarcastically.

“Easy for the winner to say,” he said wryly, some of the dry humour returning to his tone now that they weren’t fighting.

Ilei sighed. “Maybe, but I don’t plan on hurting you.”

“Just throwing me in prison for the rest of my life?”

“If that’s what they decide to do with you, yes. I’m handing you over to the Guard in Kalassee.”

Saresh snorted. “Might as well kill me here then. With everything we’ve done, Ix and I are good as dead as soon as they get their hands on us.”

Ilei frowned. That was only two people. “And the necromancer?”

Saresh barked out a surprised laugh. “What, Katali? She was more scared than the people we were after half the time, and she sure as Hells never killed anyone.”

Something about the way he said it, like it was funny, unsettled her. “Why keep her around then?”

Saresh shrugged as best he could, pinned down as he was. “People are afraid of necromancers. It’s useful. And it’s good to have a third.”

Ilei felt sick at the idea that they’d taken a kid just for her powers, and probably mostly against her will to boot.

She was done with the conversation, so, lacking anything to tie him up with, she hit Saresh upside the head with the hilt of one of his knives, and he was out cold.

Ilei climbed off of him and sat there for a second, regaining her composure. She could still hear the sounds of Ora and Ixaya’s fight, and gods only knew where Eju and Bahral were, so she couldn’t do much to help any of her friends. Guarding Saresh and making sure he didn’t run off while they weren’t paying attention would have to be enough.

Still holding his knives, she got to her feet and walked the short distance to her sword, sliding it back into its scabbard before standing up straight once again.

Ilei looked over at where she’d left Saresh, and found, to her horror, that he was gone.

She’d barely had time to process this before there was a sudden weight on her back, and arms around her throat.

“You see,” Saresh hissed in her ear, “the fun thing about being a wanted criminal is that you get very good at pretending to be unconscious.”

Ilei couldn’t breathe, and she knew she only had a small window before she passed out and was left at his mercy.

His knives were still in her hands, and though she didn’t want to kill him, an incapacitating injury wouldn’t be out of the question right now.

She stabbed blindly behind her with the knife in her left hand, and felt it hit flesh.

There was a gasp of pain and Saresh’s grip loosened, allowing Ilei enough movement to wriggle free and face him properly.

Saresh was favouring his left leg, since there was now a knife embedded in his right.

He reached down, and Ilei opened her mouth to warn him not to, but he pulled it out before she could. He swore loudly, and she winced at the fresh torrent of blood that started to drip down his thigh.

“You’ll pay for that,” he snarled, adjusting his grip on the knife and charging at her.

Ilei had been expecting that, however, and met him halfway, preparing to parry his strike with her own blade.

At the last moment, however, his attack changed, and instead of harmlessly hitting together, Saresh’s knife slipped from his grip, and Ilei’s plunged into his stomach.

Ilei reeled away in shock, stuttering out an apology.

“Ora can heal that, you’ll be alright,” she said, trying to convince herself as much as Saresh.

He wasn’t listening, staring down at the injury in shock. He took a stumbling step back, putting him with his back against the parapet.

With the amount of blood he was losing, he wouldn’t be able to keep his balance for long.

“Hey-” she started, but before she could finish the warning, he overbalanced, tipped over, and fell.

“NO!” Ilei ran forward, briefly forgetting her fear and reaching as far as she could over the low wall in hopes of catching him, but she was too late.

He landed in front of the fortress door with a sickening crack. 

***

“Mahra!”

Ora didn’t hesitate, couldn’t afford to. Her friends were gone, and she knew Ixaya would press every advantage she had.

The rune hit Ixaya dead on, sending her flying. She twisted mid-air and managed to land on her feet, sliding along the floor until she came to a stop. She was grinning.

“My my!” she exclaimed, sounding genuinely delighted, “You’ve improved!”

Ora didn’t reply, aiming another mahra at her opponent.

Ixaya dodged this one entirely.

“Only the one then? Or do you not want to use the others? Kahye!”

Ora managed to avoid most of the pain rune, but it did graze her arm.

It felt like someone had replaced her blood with acid, and she felt tears stinging her eyes at the sudden onslaught of pain.

“Go on, send one back!” Ixaya taunted.

Ora couldn’t bring herself to, hatred of Ixaya aside.

“Lehir,” she hissed instead, fire springing to life in her usable hand.

“Oh, you like that one, don’t you?” Ixaya crooned. She held up one of her arms, and Ora could see the angry red outline of a handprint-- _her_ handprint-- on the wrist. “I remember.”

Ora still didn’t answer, tucking her injured arm against her side and running at Ixaya, winding up and throwing the ball of flame at her as soon as she got close enough.

Ixaya threw up a shield just in time, avoiding most of the impact. The hem of her dress caught, but she reached down and tore off the damaged portion with barely a second glance.

“You know, I do wonder about the fire obsession. That could be dangerous, you know,” she grinned wickedly. “But who am I to judge? Khana.”

The rune wasn’t aimed at Ora, but instead at one of the statues overlooking the hall. It gave a groan of protest before falling, sending Ora scurrying out of the way before it smashed on the ground.

The fight continued like this for a length of time Ora couldn’t determine if her life depended on it. The hall was a mixture of frozen, burnt, and crumbling, and they were both starting to tire, if Ixaya’s harsh breathing between taunts was any indication.

She was getting frustrated too, clearly. Ora hadn’t spoken since the beginning of the fight, and she could tell it was grating on her.

“Why won’t you _answer me_!” she yelled, casting a kahye that Ora was too slow to avoid. This one hit her square in the torso, and she fell to the floor in blind agony.

She tried to get up, but her limbs weren’t responding to her. Ixaya was advancing on her, and Ora realized with a sinking feeling that this wasn’t a fight she could win.

She shut her eyes, not wanting to see the expression on Ixaya’s face, but was surprised when, instead of a final “Khana”, she heard Ixaya say, in a small, broken voice;

“Saresh?”

Ora opened her eyes as all the pain abruptly left her body, leaving her feeling strangely numb.

“Saresh!” 

She saw Ixaya run to the entrance doors and kneel beside the broken body on the floor, cradling his head with a tenderness Ora hadn’t believed she was capable of.

Ixaya looked up, grief mixed fury burning in her eyes.

“I will make you regret this,” she growled, and with a “tahira” she and her brother vanished.

Ora sank to the ground, exhaustion washing over her, and with it, the reality of everything that had just happened.

One of the doors opened, and Bahral and Eju appeared. Eju took one look at her and said something she didn’t hear to Bahral, who ran out the entrance with a grim expression on his face.

Eju flew over and pulled Ora to her feet. 

“Come on. You did some serious damage, I don’t think this place is going to stay standing much longer.”

“Pilenya and Uvnir,” she said stubbornly, “we can’t, we can’t just-”

“We have to,” Eju said, firmly but gently. “We can’t do anything more for them. Let’s go.”

Ora, in a daze, let herself be pulled along, out of the fortress and to safety.

***

The mood was dark at camp that night. It had been a long day, and everyone was exhausted, but too keyed up on lingering fear and adrenaline to sleep, so they all just sat together in silence.

Ora found it kind of soothing, the steady reassurance that her friends were here, with her and alive.

“Ora?” Ilei said eventually, one of the first things that had been said since they’d set up camp, “Can I talk to you? In private?”

 

Bahral gave her a concerned look, but Ilei smiled tightly and waved him off.

“Of course,” Ora replied, getting to her feet and trying not to frown, or panic.

They walked a little ways away from the other two and the fire.

Ilei seemed nervous, but Ora didn’t point it out, simply waiting in silence for her to get her thoughts in order.

“Okay. So,” she began at last, “this might seem like a terrible and wildly inappropriate time for me to do this, but, uh, here goes.” She took a deep breath. “We almost die. A lot. And I knew that, obviously, but today really made it sink in, I guess? And just, if, _when_ , it happens again, because it definitely will, it might not be an almost. And I really don’t want to die with anything unsaid, so… I _really_ like you, Ora. Romantically.” She paused, crossed and uncrossed her arms, then laughed nervously before continuing. “And I wasn’t going to say anything because I don’t want to upset the team dynamic and the last thing I want is for you to be uncomfortable, so we can definitely pretend this never happened if that’s what you want, but I just wanted it out there.”

Ora was, quite honestly, unsure how to react. She’d never been in this situation before, and she didn’t know the protocol for it. She knew what romance entailed, insofar as what she’d seen with the younger generations in the village and the older married couples like Netta and Hakir, but she’d never really imagined she’d find herself in either situation.

But the word felt… right, somehow, for the feelings for Ilei that had been gradually growing for as long as she’d known her. And Ilei was right, they really did nearly die a lot. And what harm could it do, really, to try?

“I think I do too,” she said finally. “Like you romantically. And I’d like to… court you, I suppose.” She wrinkled her nose at the wording. It felt far too formal.

Ilei just laughed, sounding amused and relieved all at once.

“Really?”

Now that the words were out, Ora felt more confident in them. “Yes.”

Ilei was beaming.

There was a sudden rustling in the trees, like something large was moving through them.

The fight earlier and treating Bahral's injuries afterwards had drained Ora's magic, so she allowed Ilei to step in front of her with her sword drawn.

Someone stumbled out of the trees, their face mostly hidden by the hood of a cloak.

“Hands where I can see them,” Ilei ordered, and the person obeyed, lifting their hands so their palms were facing Ora and Ilei.

“Hood off.”

They listened to this as well, slowly removing the hood to reveal their face.

It was the necromancer, who looked so nervous she was shaking.

“I can explain.”


End file.
